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VOLUME: I. SERIES I. 


TRANSACTIONS 


OF THE 


ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 


Epitep sy C. D. WILBER , SECRETARY, 


And Instructor in Natural History and Geology, in the State Normal University, at Bloomington. 


SECOND EDITION. 


SPRINGFIELD: 


BAILHACHE & BAKER, PRINTERS, 


1861. 


PESOS SS ee any 
cer BRARY OF 4 
Illinois State 


Laboratory of Natural History | 


NORMAL, ILLINOIS. | 


Pantagraph, Bloomington, 


HRRATA. 
The attention of the reader is called to the following: 


Page 19, fourth line from the bottom, read ‘‘ form” for ‘‘ power ;” page 20, middle of the page, 
“form” for ‘‘ power” again; » age 21, fourteen lines from the bottom, read ‘‘ flame” for ‘‘ flames,” 
page 22, ten lines from the bo!tom, supply ‘‘ of” before ‘‘ matter ;” page 24, eighteen lines 'rom the 
top, read ‘‘ three ”’ for ‘‘ these ;” page 25 eighteen lines from the top, read ‘*‘ fountain ” for ‘‘ fune 
tinn ;” page ¥5, two lines from the bottom, read ‘‘all-perva ing FORCE ;” page 26, eleven lines from 
the top, omit the period and capital 8; paze 57, read ‘‘ Mollusca” for ‘f Molusca ;” page 57, ‘‘Gas- 
teropod” fo ‘* Gasterapod ;” page 57, ‘* Orthocerata” for ‘* Arthocerata;” page 57, ‘* Leptena” 
for ‘‘ Septzeena;” page 58. ‘‘ Murchisonia” for ‘‘ Marchisonia ;” page 65—plate—*‘ Luteum” for 
‘*Lutem;” paze 107, ‘* Cincticoliis” for ‘t C:nctico'les ;” page 107, ‘‘Erraticus” for ‘* Erratecus,” 
page 109, ‘* Sanguinolentus” ‘‘Sanguinolentas;” page 114, *‘ Pensylvanica” for ‘* Pensylvanicica;” 
page 115, ‘‘Sericeus” for ‘‘Sericens;” page 115 ‘‘Curiosus” for ‘‘Coriosus;” page 117, ‘‘Simil's” for 
“Rimi'is ;” page 125, (7). ‘* Blarina” for ‘* Plarini;” page 128, ‘‘ Magnicandatus” for ‘** Canda- 
tus ;” page 140, ‘*Divicum” for ‘* Diwcum;” page 140 ‘‘Papaver” for ‘‘ Paparu;” 141, 
*“Uva-ursi” for ‘ Uva-urse; page 142, ‘‘ Asclepias” for ‘‘ Asclipias ,” page 142, ‘* Arifolium” 
for ‘‘ Aurifolinm ;” page 142, ‘‘ Alata” for ‘‘ Ulata ;” page 142 ‘* Pumila ” for ‘‘ Pumilia:” nage 
182, ‘* Giganteur ” for ‘‘ Gigantum:” page 143, -‘ Chor ” for Chorr.” 

Mr. Walsh’s article on ‘‘ Insects Injurious to Vegetation,” is reprinted from the IV volume of 
the Illinois State Agricultural Society Transactions. 


Paw kt AC T.. 


The first volume of the Society’s Transactions is now offered to 
the public. It has been the aim of the Editor, to present only 
such articles and papers as are immediately useful and interesting 
to the citizens and schools of Illinois, with a hope that a zeal for 
the pursuits and studies of Natural Ilistory may spring up among 
our people, like the seeds of the sower, in the parable, falling 
upon good soil, and yielding, “some sixty and some an hundred 
fold.” 


In order to render the greatest good to all, the subjects have gene- 
rally been treated in a popular rather than a technical style. It has 
been said, that he who places a valuable truth or fact within the 


reach of the million, is doing more for humanity than he who disco- 
vers it. And, indeed, if scientific men, or libraries and museums, 


cannot contribute to the elevation of the masses who are less privi- 
leged, their usefulness is questionable. Humboldt, Liebig, Lyell, 
Davy, Silliman and Agassiz, do not rank less, because they have 
reduced their observations to the comprehension of ordinary men. 
Those who teach, in any department, must learn the alphabet com- 
mon to all, and then all can be educated, whether in Literature, 
Science or Religion. It is, therefore, unnecessary to apologize for 
the popular style of the present offering. It should be said, how- 
ever, in behalf of the authors of the several papers, that they were 
written in the intervals of their professions or occupations, leaving 
but little time for study and research. In this country we have 
but few professional Naturalists; and in this State, only one de- 
partment of Natural History has ever received public patronage, 
viz: Geology. The forth-coming Report of the State Geologist 
will not only encourage these pursuits at home, but will show that 
the basement of Illinois is worthy of the wonderful garden that 
rests upon it. 


Natu 


os 


Within the last few years, the advancement of science has been 
unparalleled. Expeditions to every part of the globe, under goy- 
ernment patronage, by societies and individuals, besides a host of 
observers at home, have furnished a vast array of interesting 
facts. It is an age of discovery—not of new continents—but of 
new truths and facts. As a consequence, the public taste is lead- 
ing irresistibly in the direction of Natural History, to the merited 
neglect of fiction and romance; and the day is near at hand, when 
a thorough knowledge of the principles and phenomena of Nature 
will be considered essential to a liberal education. 

In the Great West, furnished ages ago, with its millions of ready- 
made farms, and where Agriculture is the leading employment, 
these studies must receive particular and constant attention. Here 
every portion of Natural History can be made practical and interest- 
ing. AGRICULTURE 7s NATURAL HISTORY APPLIED. 
Geology, Botany and Zoology are its basis, and in proportion as 
these are understood, will there be success in farming. It is be- 
cause these sciences are the basis of Agriculture, that men have 
theoretically considered it practical; it is because it has to a great 
extent ignored these sciences, its true basis, and become a change- 
less routine, that it has been practically considered base. When 
the farmer studies the minerals of which his soil is composed, the 
plants that spring up around him, the insects that destroy—when 
he learns to study all the objects which abound on every hill-side, 
valley and prairie—farming will be a science that will daily awaken 
thought, a pursuit in which mind can develop, and then it will not 
only be among the most honorable, but the most honored, of secu- 
lar professions. Just in proportion as it takes this place, does it 
rise in dignity, and call men of culture from other pursuits. 

Cc. D. W. 


Strate Normat University, Bloomington, Oct. 30, 1861. 


/ CONTENTS. 


BRORRDARS ay RIE Maers faains «edi aleie'siatare'dl = Sinie: sie aie, stokes Saisie or arelelaidie s sie o/* ala deale sie a 
Minp, Force anp Marrer—An Address—By Prof. J. B. Turner, Jacksonville.... 17 


Tur Great Tornapo or 1860—By James Shaw, Esq., Mt. Carroll, Illinois....... 37 
GrotocicaL Section or Rock River, From STERLING TO OrEGoN—By Dr. Oliver 
ree MPN 7 alaiei ay Waid al el G10 wot sins oioi al aye wine hain /epajelel=’a is 0 © apeioneiel dajelat ele ayaa eter 3 53 


Tue Mastopon Gicantevs: Irs Remarys rv Itiinois—By C. D. Wilber, Bloomington. 59 


Tue Water Lity, (Nelumbium Luteum,)—Its Mopr or Growru—By Dr. Frederick 


IBSEN CIO [a0 So eye be BORD OOIDE GOO DDrICe BERIC LOO OOOO CE DAP oe CONE CC ECD OOE 65 
TaxipermMy—By Richard H. Holder, Bloomington.............e.eeeeeececcseees 67 
Birps or Intiwois—Catalogue—By Richard H. Holder, Bloomington.............. 717 
Natura History in ScHoors—By A. M. Gow, Dixon...........c0cscetseecsece 87 
Oxsect Lessons—By J. Hl. Blodgett, Amboy.......... oh di a ete ot aie ne otal ol aca a he 99 
Insects oF ILLINOIS, WITH CATALOGUE OF CoLKopTERA—By C. Thomas, Murphysboro.103 
MamMats or Ittrnois—Catalogue—By Cyrus Thomas..........ee eee eeeeeeeeeee 123 
Pian For A Natura History Survey—By Cyrus Thomas......... Se Peace ec 135 
ADDITIONS TO THE Fiora or ILtinois—By Dr. Geo. Vasey, Ringwood, Illinois... ». + 1389 
Museum oF THE ILtinois Stare Natcrat History Sociery.—By C. D. Wilber...... 145 


Insects Insurious TO VEGETATION IN ILLINoIs—By Benjamin D. Walsh, Esq., Rock 
Rebates Blip isis, oo anaaiv staal vss 2a) s%s Se Yaak) Lane Stud Made HAIMA lols dai nie's! dl eraipie »..149 —/ G+ 


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Ee - OF 
Illinois State 


| Laboratory of Natural History 
cree a Pala: 


Pantagraph, SSS Fioomiagton, ti 


ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 


SECRETARY’S REPORT. 


This Society was organized June 30th, a. p. 1858, and existed 
simply as an organization until February 22d, a.p. 1861, when it 
received its charter from the Legislature. 


The plan for a Society devoted to the advancement of Science 
in this State, was discussed at an annual meeting of the Illinois 
Teachers’ Association, held at Decatur, in December, a. p. 185%, 
on which occasion a meeting was called, to be held at the State 
Normal University in Bloomington, on the day preceding the an- 
nual examination. Said meeting—the proceedings of which are 
published in a preceding volume of the State Agricultural Trans- 
actions—resulted in the organization of this Society. 


The demand for this movement seemed to proceed from a want 
of accurate knowledge in nearly all departments of Natural His- 
tory in the State; and also, from a desire that all facts and discov- 
eries in a field so vast as Illinois, should be made immediately 
subservient to the great ends of popular education. 


The first year of our operations was occupied in securing the co- 
operation of naturalists who live in various parts of the State. 
The plans and objects of the Society were heartily endorsed by 
them, and each began the work peculiar to his own department, 
at home. This plan has been pursued until the present time, and 
many portions of the State have been thoroughly explored. 


8 


The results of these surveys and explorations have been placed 
in the hands of the curator, and during the last year have been 
arranged in the Museum of the Society, in the Normal University 
at Bloomington. 


These results demonstrate very plainly the wisdom of the move- 
ment. Our State is rich in nearly all departments of Natural 
History, and many new discoveries have been made since our sur- 
veys were begun. This is especially true in Botany, Entomology 
and Geology. Papers descriptive of new species will be published 
in the the next volume of the Society’s Transactions. 

It is justly asource of pride, that among our own citizens there 
are persons competent to carry on this work and give it a perma- 
nent character. These individuals have labored with a zeal pecu- 
liar to the devotees of science; and it is owing to their energy and 
self-sacrifice that so much has been accomplished within the past 
two years. 


It is also a source of pride as well as encouragement, that in the 
annals of similar societies, we do not find an instance of such rapid 
progress—the example for which, however, had been previously 
set by the State for which the Society exists. 


It is unnecessary to say that many obstacles have been met and 
overcome, and that many still remain. With what labor or toil 
the Society has come to its present prosperity, let us not now de- 
clare. In nature the forces and energies that control matter, are 
silent and latent; andit is wise to imitate nature, in this as in other 
respects. 

As in the days past, the people still ask ‘“cwe bono?” which must 
be answered; and still seek for a sign, which must be given. It 
requires considerable time to undergo public examination and to 
meet its approval and co-operation; and it is most gratifying to 
know that they not only see and approve, but are willing to co- 
operate for the complete success of our plans and purposes. 


The following papers were prepared—most of them—for the last 
meeting of the Society, and have since been revised for publica- 
tion in this report. They consist of: 


I. Munn, Force anp Marrer—An Address—By Pres. J. B. Turner, Jacksonville. 
IJ. Tue Great Tornapo or 1860—By James Shaw, Esq., Mt. Carroll, Illinois, 


III. Gxronoeicat Section or Rock River, FRoM STERLING TO OrEGon—By Dr. Oli- 
ver Everett, Dixon. 


Ee ee ee ee ee ee 


XU. 


XU 


ml Vie 


9 


Tur Mastopon GieanrEus—Is Rematns 1N ILtinois—By C. D. Wilber, Bloom- 
ington. 

Tur Warer Lity, (Nelwmbium Luteum,)—Irvs Mopr or Growra—By Dr. F. 
Brendel, Peoria. 

TaxmwErMy—By Richard H. Holder, Bloomington. 

Brrps or Intinois—Catalogue—By Richard H. Holder, Bloomington. 

Narurat History 1 Scnooots—By A. M. Gow, Dixon. 

Oxsect Lessons—By J. H. Blodgett, Amboy. 

Insects oP ILLinoIs, WITH CATALOGUE OF CoLkopTrERA—By Cyrus Thomas, 
Murphysboro. 

Mammaxs or ILtinois—Catalogue—By Cyrus Thomas. 

Puan For A Natura History Survey—By Cyrus Thomas. 

Appitions To THE FLora oF ItLinoIs—By Dr. Geo. Vasey, Ringwood, Illinois. 


Museum oF THE ILLINoIs Stare Natura History Sociery.—By C. D. Wilber. 


~ A copy of the charter and constitution of the Society, and the 
resolutions and reports of committees, together with a list of offi- 
cers, are also added. 


C. D. WILBER, Secretary. 


Bioominaton, Afarch 4, 1861. 


OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. 


The following are the Board of Officers of the Society for the 
ensuing year: 


PRESIDENT. 


J. B. TURNER, Jacksonville. 


VICE-PRESIDENTS. 


Dr. OLIVER EVERETT, Dixon; Dr. FREDERICK BRENDEL, Peoria; 
Dr. SAMUEL ADAMS, Jacksonville ; Hon. A. 8. MILLER, Rockford ; 
Dr. EDMUND ANDREWS, Chicago ; D. H. BRUSH, Carbondale ; 


Hon. NEWTON BATEMAN, Springfield; J. F. JACQUES, Quincy ; 
‘Hon. M. L. DUNLAP, Champaign. 


SECRETARY. 


C. D. WILBER, Bloomington. 


TREASURER AND CURATOR. 


R. H. HOLDER, Bloomington. 


LIBRARIAN. 


IRA MOORE, Bloomington. 


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 


C. D. BRAGDON, C. T. CHASE, 
A. M. GOW, Dr. GEO. VASEY, 
JAMES BOOTH. 


11 


COMMISSIONS. 


BOTANY. 

Dr. GEO. VASEY, Ringwood, McHenry M. 8. BEBB, Springfield ; 
county ; Dr. F. BRENDEL, Peoria ; 

E. HALL, Athens, Menard county ; Dr. S. B. MEAD, Augusta. 


GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 


C. D. WILBER, Bloomington ; Rev. 0. D. W. WHITE, Mt. Carroll 
J. W. FOSTER, Chicago; Dr. OLIVER EVERETT, Dixon. 
PALA ONTOLOGY. 

A. H. WORTHEN, Springfield ; Dr. M. DAVIS, Oswego, Kendall county ; 
J. P. REYNOLDS, Springfield ; JAMES SHAW, Mt. Carroll. 

CONCHOLOGY. 
J. W. POWELL, Wheaton ; M. S. BEBB, Springfield ; 
Dr. LUCIUS CLARK, Rockford ; Dr. E. R. ROE, Bloomington ; 

E. HALL, Athens. 

ENTOMOLOGY. 
B. D. WALSH, Rock Island ; Dr. J. A. SEW ALL, Bloomington ; 
CYRUS THOMAS, Murphysboro ; H. W. BOYD, Bloomington ; 


Dr. WM. Le BARON, Geneva. 


HERPETOLOGY. 


ROBT. KENNICOTT, West Northfield; U. D. EDDY, Bloomington ; 
J. JOHNSON, Vienna. 


ICHTHYOLOGY. 


Dr. ADAM NICHOLS, Quincy ; Dr. WM. H. GITHENS, Hamilton ; 
Dr. L. WATSON, Quincy. 


MAMMALOGY, 
WM. P. GEARHARD, Murphysboro ; CYRUS THOMAS, Murphysboro. 


ORNITHOLOGY. 


R. H. HOLDER, Bloomington ; Dr. J. W. VELIE, Rock Tsland ; 
A. M. GOW, Dixon. 


METEOROLOGY. 


A. HALL, Athens; Rey. W. W. HARSHA, Dixon; 
Dr. SAMUEL WILLARD, Bloomington; JAMES SHAW, Mt. Carroll. 


DRAWING AND PAtNTING—(Natural History.) 
J. E. BRYANT, Bloomington. 


12 


REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY. 


Dr. Roe, of Bloomington, reported the following: 


1. That it shall contain all available works on the Natural Sciences, Home and For- 
eign Surveys, Manuals, Works of Reference in the several departments, Miscellaneous 
Works, not strictly scientific, Maps and Charts, ete. 

2. That the Commissions appointed in the several departments, in the service of this 
Society, be requested to furnish a list of such books as are needed in this work. 

8. That this library be held exclusively for the use of the members, and that the 
Commissions and Agents of the Society shall be permitted to borrow the books for a 
short period of time. 

4, It shall be the duty of the Librarian to arrange the books of the Society, to make 
and keep a catalogue of the same, to keep a record of the books drawn from the library 
as directed by the Society, and report to the Society at its annual meeting. 

5. That the Society devote all moneys obtained by donations and memberships to 
this important object, except so much as are necessary for expenses. 


AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 


The following is the Report of the Committee on Auxiliary So- 
cieties : 

Resolved, That we encourage the formation of Auxiliary Natural History Societies in 
the counties, schools, colleges and towns of this State, whose object it shall be to de- 
velop the Natural History of their localities, and to awaken an interest in the study of 
Natural Science. 

Resolved, That for the purpose of creating and extending the taste for the subject of 
Natural History, of stimulating those interested inthe collection of specimens in the 
various departments, and of further promoting a system of exchanges, the Illinois Nat- 
ural History Society offers to Auxiliary Societies the following premiums : 

1. For the largest and best collection of fossils, illustrating the Geology of any sec- 
tion, an exchange of fossils illustrating the Geology of the State, containing at least 
double the number of species presented by the competitors. 

2. Botany.—For the largest and best Botanical collection, illustrating the Flora of 
any section, an exchange illustrating at least the genera of the State. 

Mineralogy. 

Conchology. 

Entomology. At least double the numher of varieties. 
Herpetology. Like premiums to be offered. 


Ichthyology. , 
. Ornithology. | 


G0 IG Ot ge 


Resolved, That the competitors for the above premiums shall have their collections 
on hand at the next meeting, and present them as the property of the Society, and that 
the Society shall appoint a committee or committees to make the awards above men- 
tioned, and that the premiums be prepared and sent to the Auxiliary Society to which 
they may be awarded at the earliest opportunity, the Cummittee being judge in any case 
whether the collection is worthy of the premium offered. 


— 


13 


Resolved, That the officers of Auxiliary Societies be Honorary Members of this So- 
ciety, who may co-operate with the Society and be entitled to all the privileges of mem- 
bership, except the right of voting. 

JAMES SHAW, 
B. D. WALSH, + Committee. 
A. M. Gow. — J 


: 


RESOLUTIONS. 


The Committee on Resolutions, by C. D. Bragdon, Chairman, 
reported the following resolutions: . 

Wueneas the dignity and position of this organization, as well as the utility of its 
work, depends largely, perhaps primarily, upon the collection and record of facts, as well 
as specimens, illustrating the same ; therefore, 

Resolved, That we recommend that working members, commissioners, and others co- 
operating, keep a detailed diary of their observations in their respective departments, 
and report a condensed summary of the same to the Society, to be placed on file and 
published in its reports. 

Resolved, That it is expedient that we hereafter refuse to hear or accept verbal reports 
from the different commissions or officers of this Society. 

1. Resolved, That the Natural History of the country is of sufficient importance to 
all interests to warrant every effort on the part of educationists, everywhere, to promote 
its more general study, and the diffusion of a knowledge of it. 

2. Resolved, That as auxiliary to this work, we recommend the organization of Nat- 
ural History Societies, and the collection of cabinets, in counties, towns, and public 
and private schools, to co-operate with this Society ; and we hereby pledge to such our 
co-operation and assistance. 

3. Resolved, That we recommend, in the education of teachers, a careful attention 
to their qualification to teach, practically, the Natural Sciences in all our schools. 

4. Resolved, That we hail with gratification, and commend every effort on the part 
of authors and publishers to simplify Natural Science, and adapt text books to the 
needs and capacity of pupils in our common schools. 

5. Resolved, That the work of the Illinois Natural History Society is so far identical 
with the industrial interests of the State as to render it not only politic but imperative 
that the Executive Committee of this Society adopt measures to secure their further 
co-operation. 

6. Resolved, That a scientific survey of the State, in all the departments of Natural 
History, for the purpose of securing a more general knowledge of its agricultural and 
mineral resources, is a matter of vital importance to the people of Illinois, and worthy 
legislative action in furnishing means to do it economically and successfully. 

4. Resolved, That this Society is largely indebted to the railroads of the State, for 
facilities afforded its working members in the prosecution of their work, and for this 
recognizance of the practical utility of the work of the Society on the part of these 
corporations. 

8. Resolved, That we hereby express our appreciation of the services, and indorse- 
ment of the action of Superintendent Wilber, and the working members, in their efforts 
to promote the interests of this Society, and the diffusion of the knowledge of Natural 
History among the people of the State. 


14 


CONSTITUTION. 


The following is the Constitution of the Illinois Natural History 
Society, as amended and adopted at the late session : 


Arr. I. This Society shall be called the Natural History Society of Mlinois. 

Arr. II. Its field of observation and research shall comprise Geology, Meteorology, 
Botany, Zoology, Comparative Anatomy, and Vegetable and Animal Physiology. 

Arr. III, The officers of this Society shall consist of a President, nine Vice-Presi- 
dents, Treasurer, Secretary, Librarian, Curator, and Executive Committee, to be elect- 
ed annually. 

Art. IV. It shall be the duty of the President to preside at all regular meetings. 
In his absence one of the Vice-Presidents shall preside. 

Art. V. The Treasurer shall receive all moneys of the Society, such as fees of 
membership, donations, &c., and disburse the same as directed, upon the written order 
of the Executive Committee. 

Arr. VI. The Secretary shall keep a record of all proceedings of the Society; shall 
file all papers read before the Society; shall visit different portions of this and other 
States; make collections of specimens; attend to exchanges with various Societies ; es- 
tablish a system of co-operation, and labor to incite a general interest in the study of 
Natural History. 

Arr. VII. All specimens shall be labeled, registered and deposited in the Museum 
of the State Normal University. 

Arr. VIIL Any resident of the State of Illinois may become a member of this So- 
ciety on the payment of five dollars, if elected by a majority of the members present at 
any regular meeting, provided, the names of candidates for membership shall, in all 
cases, be presented on the recommendation of two members of the Society. 

Art. IX. Each regular member shall pay an annual assessment of one dollar, after 
the first year of his membership. 

Art. X. The Executive Committee shall consist of five members, to be selected by 
the Society. This Committee shall take charge of and act upon all matters referred to 
them by the Society. 

Art. XI. The Curator shall receive and take charge of all collections and contri- 
butions of specimens, and arrange them in such place as shall be provided by the So- 
ciety. i 

Art. XII. All regular meetings of this Society shall be held in the city ef Bloom- 
ington, on the day preceding the Annual Examination at the Normal University. 

Art. XIII. This Constitution may be amended or changed by a two-thirds vote of 
the members present at any annual meeting of the Society. 


15 


CHARTER. 


AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 


Srction 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the Gene- 
ral Assembly, That Cyrus Thomas of Jackson county, Benjamin D. Walsh of Rock 
Island, J. B. Turner of Morgan, Samuel Adams of Morgan, J. W. Powell of DuPage, 
John P. Reynolds of Sangamon, James Shaw of Carroll, Frederick Brendel of Peoria, 
Robert Kennicott of Cook, Edmund Andrews of Cook, George Vasey of McHenry, 
Oliver Everett of Lee, A. M. Gow of Lee, Richard H. Holder of McLean and C. D. 
Wilber of McLean, and their associates and successors forever, are hereby created a 
body corporate and politic, under the name and style of the Illinois Natural History 
Society, and by that name shall have perpetual succession and shall have power to 
contract and be contracted with, sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, within all 
courts of competent jurisdiction; to receive, acquire and hold real and personal prop- 
erty and effects suitable to the carrying out of the objects of said society; to havea 
common seal and alter the same at their pleasure; to make and adopt such constitution, 
regulations and by-laws as they may deem requisite and proper for the government of 
said society, not contrary to the constitution and laws of this State or of the United 
States, and to alter and amend the same at pleasure; and to have and exercise all pow- 
ers and privileges usual and incident to the trustees of corporations. 

Src. 2. The object and purpose of said society shall be to conduct and complete a 
scientific survey of the State of Illinois in all the departments of natural history, and 
to establish a museum of natural history at the State Normal University, comprising 
every species of plants, insects, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, shells, minerals and fossils, 
within our State limits, as far as can be obtained, comprising also such other collections 
of natural history, from various parts of the world, as may be deemed necessary by 
said society. . 

Sec. 3. Said natural history society shall also provide for a library of scientific 
works, reports of home and foreign surveys, manuals, maps, charts, etc., etc., such as 
may be useful in determining the fauna and flora of Illinois, and said library shall be 
kept in the museum of said society at the State Normal University. 

Sec. 4. The museum of said natural history society shall be for the use of the 
members thereof, and for the citizens and schools of Illinois, and shall be accessible to 
the students of the State Normal University, under such regulations as may be adopted 
by the trustees of this society, and the board of instruction of said university. 

Sec. 5. A full and complete set of specimens in every department of natural his- 
tory, donated to the society or obtained by exchange, purchase or otherwise, shall for- 
ever be and remain in the museum of said society. 

Sec. 6. At all stated and other meetings called by the president and five trustees, 
five trustees shall constitute a quorum: Provided, all shall have been notified. The 
persons named in the first section of this act shall constitute the first board of trustees; 
and said board shall be divided into three classes of five members, and shall hold their 
offices for one, two and three years respectively. All vacancies occurring in the board 
of trustees shall be filled at the regular annual meeting of the members of said society 
by an election, which shall be by ballot, and shall require a majority of the members 
present. 

Sec. 7. The constitution and by-laws of said society now in operation, so far as 
they are not inconsistent with this act, shall govern the corporation hereby created, 


16 


until regularly altered or repealed by the society, and the present officers of said 
society shall be the officers of the corporation hereby created until their respective 
terms of office shall regularly expire or be vacated. 

Sec. 8. The property of said corporation, both real and personal, shall forever be 
and remain free from taxation. 

Sec. 9. This act is hereby declared a public act, and shall be in force on and after 
its passage. 


SHELBY M. CULLOM, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 


FRANCIS A. HOFFMAN, 


Speaker of the Senate. 
Approyrep February 22, 1861: 


RICHARD YATES, Governor. 


POWER, FORCE AND MATTER: 


THEIR DIVERSITY, UNITY, SIMPLICITY AND HARMONY, THE BASIS 
OF ALL SCIENCE AND ALL KNOWLEDGE. 


A Discourse delivered at the Anniversary of the Illinois Natural History Society, 
at Bloomington, June, 1860: 


By J. B. Turner, President of the Society. 


It is well on all subjects, sometimes to recur to fundamental 
principles and consider to what final results these would carry us, 
if unsparingly applied to all objects of research or of thought.— 
Especially is this appropriate in our investigations of the Laws of 
Nature; for, by this method alone, can we know whether our 
assumed principles are true or false, and what we are to expect in 
their future application to phenomena still unknown, or but im- 
perfectly apprehended and classified under these general axioms 
or truths 

The most rigorous application of our assumed axioms to un- 
known as well as known phenomena, although in one aspect it 
may be simply theorizing, inasmuch as it may indicate a probable 
theory of these phenomena, in another aspect it is only a proper test- 
ing of the truth or falsehood of these axioms themselves. In either 
view, however inappropriate it may seem to the mere pedantic 
smatterer in science, it cannot be uninteresting to the true philoso- 
pher. Ihave thought, therefore, that it would neither be improper 
nor unacceptable, on the present occasion, to call the attention of 
this association to the probable ULTIMATE AND UTTER SIMPLICITY OF 
NATURE, OF THE WHOLE UNIVERSE OF Gop, as a necessary logical 
2 epiaaren of the fundamental axioms of the Baconian Philoso- 

y: 
None can be more fully aware of the difficulty of presenting 
such a subject, than the members of this association; and none 
can lament my incompetency to the task more deeply than myself’; 
but with that indulgence which confessed ignorance may always 
claim from the truly wise, I will endeavor to present an outline 


—s 


18 


both of my thoughts and of my doubts in a somewhat intelligible 
form; with less regard to the technical terms and theories of ex- 
tant science, or the demands of either precision of thought or ele- 
gance of style, than to the present necessities of a miscellaneous 
audience. 

What then is the wltimate axiom of the Baconian or Modern 
Philosophy? It is the assumption of the absolute simplicity of the 
law of causation—or the doctrine that all effects are produced by 
simple and not by a complex causation. 

This doctrine is based on the observation of the entire simplicity 
of causation, so far as our knowledge has as yet extended, or the 
extreme unity and simplicity of those causes which, at all points, 
are found to underlie and produce the boundless phenomenal vari- 
ety of the Creator’s works. And the philosophic rule, derived from 
this, is, never to assume but one cause where that is adequate to 
the result. 

Is this fundamental doctrine and its resultant rule, correct? and, 
if so, SHALL we, DARE we, apply it to all known being and phe- 
nomena? But, if not so applicable, it is not, of course, correct, 
and should be at once abandoned, as untenable; or, at least, should 
be so far limited and explained, as to indicate, truly, precisely how 
much we do mean, and what we do not mean, by it. And even 
if this discourse should have no other use it may provoke thought 
and incite a more careful scrutiny on this point. | 

It is selfevident that we know but three generic forms of exis- 
tence or of being in the Universe of God. To designate these by 
the old and more common terminology, we should call the first or 
or lowest in the order, marreR; the second, the meonDERABLE 
AGENTS, such as light, heat, electricity, etc.; and third, the vorun- 
TARY AGENTS, such as men, animals, beasts, birds, ete. The per- 
ceived peculiarity of the first, or of MATTER, is, FORM and its 
ATTENDANTS; that of the second, is simple FORCE, capacity of 
producing motion, or tendency toward motion, and its attendants; 
that of the third class, is POWER of thought and of will; in 
higher or lower degrees; or, POWER of will and its attendants 
and results; or, perhaps, better, smmPLE SELF-MovING PowER. By 
a shorter terminology, then, I will name these three generic forms 
of all known being: 

MATTER, producing form, and its attendants; 

FORCE, producing motion, and its attendants; and 

POWER, producing thought and will, and their attendants and 
results. 

I might then, perhaps, here say,that simple MATTER, FORC 
and MIND, include all known things; except that it would be 
straining the usual signification of mind, to make it embrace all 
those lower orders of being, which seem to have some power of 
thought or of will; and it is not clear, to say the least, that any form 
of voluntary being, belongs to, or results from, mere MATTER and 
ForcE; though it may beso. For, though this voluntary princi- 


19 


ple, or power, of will or of thought, seems to exist in three dis- 
tinct forms:—in connexion with reason and conscience, as in the 
case of moral beings; in connexion with intelligence or thought, 
in greater or less degrees, as in the higher orders of animal life; 
and, in connexion with bare instinct, in still lower orders—we still, 
know nothing about it, except that it is a mere PpowER, of some 
sort, manifesting volition or thought and will—just as Forcr is 
known only as the cause prodncing motion. But, on the other 
hand, we can scarce resist the impression, that matter must consist 
of atoms or elements, though actually known only as the cause of 
form and its attendants. And thus matter, stripped of its phe- 
nomenal adjunct of form, presents itself to us as simple aroms; 
and then we have in the world, only Aroms, Forces and powERs— 
the one producing, (or, perhaps better, merely presenting or re- 
sulting in,) all rorm; the next, producing all motion and change of 
place or form; and the last producing all thought and will—the 
great Trinity of Universal Science and Nature—the first, the prox- 
imate cause of all form; the second, the proximate cause of all 
motion or change; and the third, the proximate cause of all thought 
and all will; and, in its highest manifestations, the great first cause 
of, or rather power producing, all things—all motion—all change— 
all matter—all everything. The two first of these, matter and 
force, belong to the realm of the properly natural, or the realm of 
natural and necessary causation; the last, or powER of will belongs 
to the realm or sphere of the supernatural, and lies, at least so far 
as we know or can see, wholly outside of the realm of necessary 
causation, and within the realm of voluntary self-determining, selt- 
controlling power—existing, as indeed as do, also, matter and force, 
under an infinite variety of phenomenal aspects; or, rather, work- 
ing with infinitely diversified degrees and aspects of power; but 
ever, still as an original, spontaneous and independent fountain or 
source of powER, however small or large; and holding within itself, 
in its own inherent nature, the cause of its own action; and not, 
like matter and force, moving only as it is acted upon by some cause 
from without. But as matter, force, and power or mind, must all 
alike have an appropriate sphere of action, so also, in each alike, 
this sphere of action is not the cause of their action. Jor exam- 
ple:—as matter must have space, as its sphere of action, or it can- 
not exhibit its phenomena of form; and as force must have matter 
to act upon, as its sphere or occasion of action, or it cannot produce 
its phenomena of motion, or of tendency toward motion—so this 
power, this ORIGINAL SELF-DETERMINING and SELF-CONTKOLLING POW- 
ER of will, or mind, must have its proper sphere or occasion of ac- 
tion, or MATTER to act upon and Force to act with, or something to 
choose and to do, or it cannot exhibit its peculiar phenomenal power. 
But space is not the cause of power, nor is matter the cause of force, 
nor are all together the cause of volition or of the action of this 
PowER of will or mind, but only the instruments or the occasions 
which render such action possible. 


20 


An precisely here, I pause to make my lowest bow to good old 
Jonathan Edwards and his erudite disciples, and bid them God 
speed. For it is self-evident that neither matter nor force of any 
sort, or in any form have any more tendency or even appetency to 
control mind, or will or powkr, in the true sense of the terms, than 
space has to control form, or inert matter to control force. And 
the only answer to the question “what causes this mind, this pow- 
ER, to act so and so?” which we can give, is simply this: “God 
made it, not a form, or a force, but a PowER, in its own nature and 
sphere capable of such action—just as he made force capable of its 
own natural action upon matter, and matter capable of voce] 
form in space.” In other words, the natural only, or MATTER an 
FORCE, are governed by laws of causation; but the supernatural, 
or mind, will, real powrR, is governed only by the laws of volition 
or the laws of the supERNATURAL—which are neither laws of form 
or of force or of causation, in any such sense as is ever implied in 
the realm of the natural. 

If now we look over the world of sense, we shall find all its in- 
finitely varied and wondrous phenomena, at any given moment, 
to consist simply of matter, in its various forms and its attendant 
colors—though color probably belongs to the order of force rather 
than of matter—and whatever change, either of form, or of size, or 
place, occurs in these atoms of matter—whether from without or 
from within—whether of growth or of decay—is the result of some 
FORCE, astronomical, mechanical or chemical, producing or tending 
toward motion; and these can no more be changed, without force, 
producing motion, than there can be power without matter. The 
question, then, here arises—are these two all-producing, all-em- 
bracing elements of all being, and all change in the physical 
world, simple or complex ?—each a unit, in itself, or multiform and 
varied? It is not enowgh to say that the books give us a great 
many kinds of matter, anda great variety of forces ; for the ques- 
tion is—how do the books know? and on what authority do the 
books contradict the very axioms, on the basis of which they 
themselves are professedly written? Is their doctrine of the sim- 
plicity of nature, and of causes, to be retained or abandoned? 
That is the question? If it is to be rigorously retained, then we 
come, at once, to a view of the utter unity and simplicity of nature, 
that is most sublime and astounding, and still just what he who 
knows how simple gravity wheels all suns and spheres and atoms 
should be prepared to expect—and certainly many of our best 
writers and thinkers admit the possibility, if not the certainty, of 
this entire simplicity of matter. ee 

It is generally conceded, then, that matter consists of atoms, or, 
as they are sometimes called, elements; and it is also quite gen- 
erally supposed that we know of more than one elemental, or ulti- 
mate, or atomic, form of matter. But do we know this? or only 
assume it, without any ground of confidence, and strictly against 
all our axioms and analogies, derived from other sources? Some 


21 


have supposed that at least two ultimate or atomic forms of matter 
must exist, or else there could be no combination and no change, 
producing all the varied phenomena of the material world. But 
suppose that the ultimate atoms of matter are all one and the same— 
all, if you please, perfectly regular in their shape, like the eggs of 
the same bird or fowl or insect; still it is susceptible of mathemat- 
ical demonstration that the forms into which these ultimate atoms 
may be piled or congregated, by simply varying the angles of their 
axis, or their relative distances apart, or both, is absolutely infinite: 
Thus—take the above mentioned form of matter, which we can 
most easily conceive of, as an illustration—the egg of a fowl. All 
can perceive that by varying the angles of their incidence, and 
their relative distances from each other, the forms in which they 
may be piled or congregated are absolutely infinite, producing as 
many forms of piles as there can be forms of matter in the uni- 
verse of God—however many there may be. I shall soon show 
how Force, or the second great agent in nature, acts upon these 
atoms of matter, to determine all their relative positions and dis- 
tances apart, in all their possible aggregations and changes. But 
one element or phase of this universal force is what we call heat; 
and the universal effect of this form of force, as it is exerted on all 
the atoms of matter, well illustrates, at this point, my idea. You 
take solid ice, and apply the force of heat, and you soon have the 
yielding fluid, water, from the same identical solid atoms. These 
same atoms, constituting ice, have now, under the application of 
this new force—the force of heat—changed both their form and 
their color, and appear like quite another substance. Apply still 
more of this new force of heat to this now melted ice, and you 
have eerial vapor, with the dew, the cloud, the fog, and the rain- 
bow—all still out of your solid ice. Apply more force of heat 
still, and you have a form of fiery gas out of your inert and slug- 
gish ice, which whirls armies and navies over continents and 
oceans—grinds granite mountains to powder, and chews up solid 
iron bars as a horse chews straw. Apply a little more, still, of 
this new force of heat to your inert ice, and you have an explosion 
of burning flames, for which we still lack a descriptive name, and, 
therefore, call it hot steam-—hotter than the flame of gunpowder 
itself, and so uncontrollable, impetuous, and omnipotent, in its ac- 
tion and effects, that the whole solid globe itself connot restrain or 
control it. Now, no one supposes that the atoms or elements of 
the gas, the steam, the fog, the water, and the ice, are different ; 
for we know that they are not, but that these same atoms assume 
entirely new forms and relations, under this new disposing rorch— 
or FORCE Of HEAT. And precisely similar results follow in the case 
of all other forms of matter, when subjected to the same force—or 
force of heat. These very familiar examples show how all possible 
forms of matter may, at least, be constituted from one and the same 
kind of ultimate atoms, as easily as from two or more kinds. And un- 
til we give up our axiom, as regards the simplicity of causes, it is strict- 


22 


ly unphilosophical to suppose that there is, in reality, but one ulti- 
mate atomic form of matter; since to attribute more than one sim- 
ple cause, where one is adequate to the whole result, is, in science, 
UNPHILOSOPHICAL, if not absurd. But it may be asked—have not 
chemists demonstrated that there are more elements of matter than 
one, even in this water itself? I answer no. It is a point that 
never has been, and, in the nature of things, never can be demon- 
strated; for we can never declare any form of matter whatever to 
be simple, till we resolve all matter into its ultimate atoms. Till 
then, all we can truly say, in any case, is, that we cannot yet declare 
it compound—that is, cannot yet analyze it into any simpler form 
than itself. But not knowing and absolutely knowing are two very 
different things; though, unfortunately, some seem still to consider 
them the same. 

Again—it may be asked—is not your new force, or force of heat, 
by which you work these vast changes in the case supposed, ma- 
terial, or only another form of matter? I answer—I have no more 
reason to suppose that heat is matter, in any proper sense of the 
term—that is, that it consists of atoms, like other matter—than I | 
have to consider mind, soul, and thought, as matter. Matter is, 
properly speaking, only that which consists of atoms, and necessa- 
rily assumes form. Force is that which, without either known 
atoms or form, necessarily produces motion or change; and these 
two have absolutely nothing, in common, so faras we know. And 
as there is no force in mere inert atoms, to produce either motion 
or change, so there are no atoms in force which can assume form— 
no more than thought itself can assume physical form or exert 
physical foree—at least so far as we yet know. True, any one hass 
aright to extend the meaning of the terra matter, so as to em- 
brace what are commonly called the “imponderable agents,” which 
I here call simple rorcr; but; if so, he ought at least to be aware 
that he, by such definition, pushes the term marreR wholly out of. 
its usual and well known sense—as truly so as he would the term 
“cast ron,” if, by arbitrary definition, he should so extend its mean- 
ing as to make it embrace human souls and bodies; for, so far as 
we know, these imponderable agents—this universal force, (or 
these forces, if you please)—have not even so much in common 
with mere matter as cast-iron has in common with human beings; 
for we know that there isiron in some form in the body—but there 
is neither form, the essential matter in foree—nor motion, the es- 
sential of force in matter alone—even in the smallest degree, so far 
as we know. And by what logic or rhetoric things totally dissim- 
ilar should be put under the same name I cannot conceive. Still 
further—the question is sometimes asked, whether mind itself’ is 
matter. We might just as rationally ask if it is pewter or block 
tin or cast-iron.” It can be neither, except by the most arbitrary 
definition. 

Between that pownr, whatever it is, and whatever we may 
choose to call it, which produces thought and will, and that rorcE 


23 


which produces motion, and those aroms or matter which produce 
forms, there is absolutely not even the slightest resemblance, 
either in their essence, their modes of action or their uniform 
effects—so far, at least, as we know or have any reason to believe. 

If, therefore, we profess, at all, to class and call different things 
by different names, we must keep each of these classes, both in 
name and thought, entirely distinct—at least till we find between 
them some common idea or element. 

Otherwise we might just as well call them by arbitrary defini- 
tion, all together—all as one “granite,” or “plumb pudding,” or 
“wild geese,” and cease, at once, from all possible reasoning and 
inquiry about them. For power, producing thought and will— 
and rorcr, producing motion—and Marrer, producing form, are 
indeed the only three things, known to us in the whole world of 
things and of thought, that are, ar ALL Pornrs—in essence, func- 
tion and effect—totally distinct and unlike. Why, then, confound 
or misname or misconceive them ? 

It might, with far yreater plausibility, be assumed that each 
atom or particle of matter is, in and of itself, invested with a pecu- 
liar force, which impels it to move and act, under all conditions, as 
it does; that is, that this force, producing all motion and all change, 
is attached inseparably to the atoms which it moves, so as to be- 
come, in all cases, an inherent instead of an external and indepen- 
dent force, acting from within instead of from without upon the 
particles. But if so, the inert atom is still one thing—the thing 
of mere place and form; while the inherent force is quite another 
thing—the thing of all motion, all change, all life and all death, 
and in thought we must separate them, even if znseparable in fact. 

But if L have not said enough to show the probability, if not the 
certainty, of the absolute simplicity of matter, it is still best to con- 
sider, at this point, the simplicity of rorcn, or of that which pro- 
duces all motion and all change. For it is self-evident that there 
can be no change without motion, and no motion without force or 
a cause producing it; and as we have, in accordance with general 
usage, called the cause producing form, MATTER, so now, in obedi- 
ence to the same usage, we call the cause producing motion or 
change, Force. Is force, then, in the created universe, simple or 
complex 4 

‘“‘ How absurd the question!” says one. ‘Does not common 
sense teach us all that force is infinitely complex and various? Do 
we not all see, with our own eyes, chemical forces, mechanical 
forces, and astronomical; the force of gravity, electricity, magnet- 
ism—of attraction and repulsion; the force of wind, water, steam, 
and muscle, in all their thousand varied forms? How absurd, 
then, to speak of force as a simple unit, even granting that matter 
is but one varied aggregate of simple atoms!” 

But stop one moment, my friend. Just now, you was equally 
sure of multitudinous ultimate forms of matter. You had your 
oxygens and hydrogens—your nitrogens and carbons—your metals 


24 


and gasses—all neatly boxed up and labeled, in your laboratories 
and books, as an indefinite number of simple forms of matter. We 
have already, I trust, emptied some of these empyrical vials—or, 
at least, written, in fair, legible hand, on their labels, “ unknown,” 
though, by every rule acknowledged by either man or God, pre- 
sumed to be simple; and, by the same great law of simplicity and 
unity, this seemingly multiform rorce should be confessed a simple 
unit—at least, till the contrary is proved. 

But let us go back, for one moment, and consider again these 
three phenomena: MIND, ForcE and MATTER. Mzrnn, as the origi- 
nal cause of all things; and roroz, as the mere right hand of mind 
or proximate cause of all change; and martnr, as the element or 
mere vehicle which, in space, makes all change, all motion, all 
force, all mind, cognizable to sense. Here is your man with his 
tea-kettle or boiler, if you please, and his ice. He kindles his fire: 
for the fire or the heat can no more germinate itself, without some 
controlling or directing powEr, than the ice can melt itself. Now, 
we have got just these things together: the man, or an original, 
self-moved or self-moving powER; the heat, or a rorcy through 
which this power—this mind and will of man, may act on matter; 
and the matter, in the form of ice, on which both minp and Forces, 
and power and causation may act. Here is powEr—self-moved, 
self-directing power—in the mind and will of the man, or power 
Of ORIGINAL, SPONTANEOUS CAUSATION, or causation assignable to no 
force from without the man himself—an independent fountain (so 
to speak) of force, which we will call, for the sake of distinctness, 
POWER—A POWER—to separate it from all other force as such. 
Second: we have simple FoRCE or PROXIMATE CAUSATION in the 
form of heat; and third: we have the zce, or a form of matter, on 
which this power of mind or will, or of original causation, can act 
through, and only through some form of force or some form of 
proximate causation—in this case, the force of heat. Now, mark: 
This original, spontaneous power—the power of mind—wills to 
create or apply the force of heat. The heat yields obedience to 
this original source of power, and necessarily acts upon the ice 
according to its own laws of proximate causation, and throws it 
now into the form of water, now into that of vapor, or dew, or 
rainbow, or explosive gas—according as the first cause, or power, 
or directing mind, or will, ordains. Now, this is precisely what, 
and only what takes place in all forms of motion or of change of 
life, or of decay and death, in all cases whatever in which we know 
ALL the elements and causes of such motion or change. There is 
always, first: a powER of mind or will of some voluntary being, 
human or animal—as a power or fountain of causation. Second: 
some form of rorcx applied or directed by this voluntary agent or 
porer and, third: the form of matter upon which this force acts. 

‘e notice that in this case the force applied is simple heat, and the 
result is varied in proportion to the intensity of its application. 
Now, if the power of man, with his limited faculties, by the applica- 


25 


tion of the single and simple force of heat, can throw a lump of ice 
into all these multiform and varied forms, who can doubt the power 
of God, by the same simple force, under different degrees and 
aspects, to produce on matter all] its varied results ? 

Again—the Indian or the archer wills to pull his bow-string. 
This power of will sets in motion a Froxce in the muscle of his arm ; 
that force moves the bow-string, and that again moves the bow, 
and that the arrow—which cleaves the air and causes the death of 
a sparrow, or a hero, asthe case may be. Here, again, isan origi- 
nal power—the power of will—setting in motion a series of forces, 
animal and natural, determining life and death, or, it may be, the 
fate of armies and empires. But, as in all other possible cases, 
here is only, jist, a self-moving power of some voluntary being— 
second, rorcx or forces set in motion or action by such power, and 
the MATTER on which this original power and its obedient force or 
forces act. And as we find force the sole cause of motion, or 
change, or PROXIMATE causation, in all cases fully known to us, we 
find the will of voluntary beings, the sole functions of original 
causation—the sole sELF-ORIGINATING PowER. And as there is no 
tendency, so far as we know, in mere matter to produce motion, so 

there is no more tendency in mere force to act in any way, except in 
so far as it is acted upon, or moved by some voluntary power or 
original spontaneous source of causation—under the genera of mind, 
will, voluntary being, or whatever other name you please to give 
it; and we have no analogy or well authenticated example whatever 
of any real or possible change produced without these three con- 
current causes of all known change—marreR yielding to force, of 
some sort, and rorcg, directed and controlled or set in motion or 
action by mind, will, powrr or voluntary action of a voluntary 
being of some sort. Hence, it will appear why I termed marrEeR 
the cause of form, and Force the cause of motion or change, and 
MIND, or power, the great first cause of force, of motion, and of all 
things—the sole and only fountain of original spontaneous power, 
at least so far as we as yet know. ‘True, we call this universal 
force by different names, according to the conditions of its action 
and the things it acts upon; but in all cases, alike, we know noth- 
ing whatever of it, except it is a sumple Forox, and have not the 
least reason to suppose it complex in any case more than in the 
case of heat supposed; and it would be just as philosophical, in 
this case of supposed heat, to speak of one force of thawing or 
melting and another foree of expanding, boiling, evaporating, 
exploding, ete., according as the ice was made to melt, evaporate 
or explode, as it now is, to speak of the forces of heat, light, elec- 
tricity, etc.; for we know absolutely nothing of any one of these, 
except simply that it is A rorce producing certain results, widely 
different, indeed, as in the other case, but no more necessarily from 
different forces; while our ultimate law or rule of causation should 
impcl us to speak of this all-pervading, (as in the case of matter,) 
as simple—a simple unit—till we have at least some reason to sup- 


26 


pose the contrary; especially if in our observations of nature we 
ever keep finding new facts and hints, which point toward this 
same simplicity of causation or of force. True, in popular lan- » 
guage, it is well enough to speak of “‘water-falls” and “wind-falls” 
and “down-falls” of all sorts, and of force of heat, light; electricity, 
life, death, gravity, polarity, ete, or of a force of Ses teings evapo- 
rating and exploding, provided we do not philosophically deceive 
ourselves and others by our terminology; and constantly remem-. 
ber that, as it is one simple force which produces water-falls, and 
wind-falls, and rain-falls, and one force that melts and evaporates 
and explodes. So in all other cases, our real knowledge does not 
extend one item beyond this single idea of simple force, producing 
varied results, in any case whatever; while many items in our 
knowledge, as well as the constant developments of science, and, 
above all, the fundamental rule or law of all science—the great rule 
of simplicity of causation—should compel us to speak of and regard 
all force, of whatever sort, as a simple unit—simple force—produ- 
cing varied results; which is in fact all we know about it—and we 
only deceive ourselves when our terminology leads us to think 
otherwise. Butit may be asked—what causes rorce to move, or 
MIND Or VOLUNTARY AGENTS to will—to act? All we know is, that 
it is the essential nature of force to move—-that is to act as a FORCE, 
whenever brought in contact with matter to be moved or to be acted 
upon. And it is the essential nature of mind or of voluntary be- 
ings to will and to act asa self-moving PowER, wherever there are 
forces, which this power desires thus to set in motion or action—or 
matter which it desires to act upon. But as the matter does not 
cause the force which moves it, andis only the necessary occasion, 
the instrument of its action, sono more does force cause the action” 
of the mind or will, but is only the occasion or instrument which 
renders its action possible. ; 

In this view of the case matrerR is the mere plaything of force, 
and Foro: itself is the mere plaything or instrument of superemi- 
nent minp or will. Unless, indeed, contrary to the apparent anal- 
ogy of all cases of which we can have full knowledge, we resolve all 
power into mere force, and consider mind itself only as a higher 
form of such force, and thus, again, violate a law of lexicography, 
at least, by including under the same name things which have no 
perceived analogy—thought, will—or VoLUNTARY POWER, and invol- 
untary FORCE. 

We see, too, in view of this subject, that “personal identity,” as 
well as all forms of material identity, depends not at all on the 
sameness of the matter of which any particular body is composed ; 
for all matter is, according to this view, a unit; and all forms of 
mere matter the same; while all variations in matter depend. 
wholly on the variations of force or of force and spirit combined. 
Hence, the same spirit and the same forces necessarily assume and 
take to themselves the same material forms, whenever attached to 
matter at all, and are, therefore, identical, just as gold is always 


27 


gold, iron always iron, or any of their alloys, always identical with 
the same alloy. Hence, Paul’s reasoning about the resurrection of 
the body, in the fifteenth chapter of Corinthians and elsewhere, 
is, at least, strictly philosophical; and all objections drawn from 
the constant or total dissipation or recombination of the particular 
particles of matter in the body, at any one time, either at or before 
_ the period of death, are unphilosophical and absurd ; or, at the very 
best, such objections assume what no man knows, or can know, as 
the basis of their conclusions. 

Is, then, rorcr, this proximate cause of all motion, simple or 
complex—one in kind, acting in various ways, or multiform and 
complex? Now, motion is simple change of place. It is a simple 
thing, though endlessly diverse in its directions and changes. Has 
it a simple cause? The philosophic axiom of the Baconian philos- 
ophy can not possibly allow it but one, till it is proved that more 
than one is needed. And as we now know that most of the appa- 
rent forms of matter are merely phenomenal, so we have every 
reason to suppose that most of the apparent forms of force are 
merely phenomenal, also. And if there are any facts, revealed by 
the progress of science, which would drive us from the rigorous 
application of our philosophic rule of simple causation in solving 
the phenomena of all form in matter as the result of simple ele- 
mental atoms, and of all motion and change as the equal result of 
simple elemental force, equally one and simple in its nature, I 
know not what those facts are. Why, then, is it not right to 
apply our rule and assume and assert its truth till we know to the 
contrary? Or shall we give up our rule; or hold it as dogmatists 
do their creeds: as a settled truth, everywhere to be asserted and 
proclaimed, or at least not contradicted, but nowhere to be either 
discussed, applied or believed—a bare, dead form of words. 

Under this view of the subject, how full of life and inspiration 
is the study of Natural History, in all its varied departments ? 
pepe! manitold, and yet how sublimely simple, are all the works of 

od! 

Only three simple things, of which to make a universe of being : 
angels, men, beasts and birds, earth, ocean, air; all solids, liquids, 
gasses ; all forms of beauty and deformity—of life and of death— 
illing all time and all eternity: mmnp, Force and mMatrEer—the 
great created and uncreated Trinity of the Universe of God—pro- 
ducing all forms, all shapes, all sights, all sounds, all arts, all life, 
all death, all being, all motion, all change, all everything. 

True, we call these three things by various names, as they ap- 
pear before us in varied forms; but does the name change the 
thing? So we call water ice when it is frozen, and steam when it 
is heated. In like manner (it may be, at least,) that we call this 
all-moving force, as it glances through space, from the bosom of 
the sun, pure light. As it strikes through our atmosphere, or im- 
pinges upon the solid matters of our globe, we call it heat. As it 
performs its mysterious and unknown circuits and offices around 


28 


and within the earth, (possibly causing both its annual and diurnal 
motion,) we call it gravity, polarity, the centripetal and eb cero 
force—cohesion, attraction and repulsion, etc., etc. As it shoots, 
in fiery masses, from point to point, or from cloud to cloud, or 
trembles along wires, under oceans or over continents, obedient to 
the power of mind, (even in man,) we call it electricity. As it 
runs along the nerves or coils round the brain of men or animals, 
we call it galvanism, nervous fluid, etc., etc. As it slowly builds 
or shoots up the myriad forms of crystal, vegetable and animal 
life in earth, air, and sky, and in the vast and capacious sea, we 
call it chemical affinity, animal and vegetable growth, life, etc. ete. 
As it finally drops all things into the charnel house of death, we 
call it decomposition—decay. And, summarily, we speak of all 
its acts, in these regards, as composition and decomposition. As it 
whirls along in the bosom of a storm, sweeping all things—the 
air, buildings, fences, trees and animals—in the same giddy whirl 
along with it, we call it a whirlwind; though we might as well 
call it a whirl-tree, or a whirl-house, or whirl-barn, or whirl-fence ; 
for it often makes trees, houses, barns and fences whirl as lively as 
it does the air. While on the ocean, we call a similar phenomena 
a water-spout, and might as well call this a ship-spout, or whale- 
spout, too, for it takes up a ship or a whale just as easily as it does 
the water. Finally, when all its earthly offices and duties are 
done, it seeks to whirl away toward the poles of the earth, and, 
like the’ Phcenix, rising from its own ashes, to gleam and corrus- 
cate in the Polar sky on its return back to the bosom of the sun, 
from which it came; and then we call it the “aurora borealis” — 
“the morning of the north.” But it is questionable whether this 
might not better be called the “evening of the north,” for it would 
seem more natural to suppose that here, at last, the earthly day’s . 
work of this mighty, all-moving force is brought to its close. 
Phenomenally, perhaps, all our varied names are well enough ; 
just as we speak of a water-fall, a stone-fall or a tree-fall—though 
it is simple gravity, as we admit, that makes them all fall. And 
what is gravity, or electricity, or attraction, or any other form of 
force? Why, it is simple force, performing certain things or 
changes upon matter; and that is, in reality, atx we know about it. 
Simple, mighty, mysterious, all-creating, all-moving, all-destroy- 
ing force—now gilding a scene; now hatching an egg or sprouting 
a seed; now wafting a feather or scattering a sporale; and now 
whirling or exploding a planet or a world—existing everywhere 
and doing all things—filling all space without occupying space— 
controlling all form, shape, color and motion, without form, shape, 
color or motion either—so far as we know; for motion belongs 
only to matter, not to force—the right hand of God, by which He 
moves and affects all things—if, indeed, it be at last resolvable 
into anything but the naked will of God itself; and, if so, it surely 
must be simple and not complex. ) 


29 


Perhaps we may never be able to solve this great riddle by act- 
ual demonstration. But if not, it is still, I contend, more philo- 
sophical to hold to the simplicity of nature and the simplicity of 
causation, and assume that both force and matter are units, rather 
than to assume, against all our axioms and known rules of evidence, 
that they are complex and varied. for the case stands really thus: 
We vo xnow that some one kind of Marrrr, ForcE and PpowER does 
exist as the several causes of FoRM, MoTIon, and of THouGcuT and 
witt. But that more than one kind of ultimate matter, force or 
power does exist we do nor know; and it is surely more philoso- 
phical to AssUME AND REPORT ONLY WHAT WE DO KNow than what we 
do not know. And to draw this line between the actually known and 
the unknown has been one object of this discourse—that we may 
see, more clearly, how little we actually do know. 

And to trace and note all the varied and complex manifestations, 
methods, relations and phenomena of that essence of MATTER, 
which assumes form ; and of Force, which produces motion; and 
of power, which produces thought and will, makes up the sum 
total of all human knowledge, both in the natural and material 
world, under the great law of necessary causation; and in the 
supernatural and spiritual world, under the laws of free volition. 
The one the law of marrer and rorce—the other the law of spreir 
and POWER. 

This view gives a unity and simplicity to all our philosophic 
aims and investigations which no other view could; and at certain 
points tends to shield us from errors, and even from the most gross 
absurdities, into which the mere book-making and book-reading 
world have often been inclined to fall. 

The absurd confounding of matter or force, or both, with spirit 
and power, and the great law of inevitable causation, which goy- 
erns the one, with the law of free volition, which governs the 
other—so common in the most learned writers, especially on meta- 
physies and theology—could scarcely have occurred, if this view of 
the simplicity of the Creator’s works had been, even as a bare pos- 
sibility, admitted to the mind; for it at once dispels all the fog 
and dust of such confused and absurd notions, and shows us, at a 
glance, that a man might as well inquire after the gross weight of a 
thought, in pounds and ounces, as after the necessary cause of a 
volition—or after the conscience of a cannon ball, as after the mat- 
ter of a spirit, or even of a force. 

Consistently with this view, there never has been but three great 
leading modes of human thought in the world—called, in difterent 
ages and languages, by different names, and exhibited under some- 
what different phases, but each resting, substantially, on the same 
basis—whether in Germany or Judea—among the millionsof China 
or India—or in the wilds of America. We commonly name these 
modes of thought MATERIALISM, PANTHEISM and SPIRITUALISM. 

The first looks upon the world from the mere material or phe- 
nomenal side, and assumes the actual supReMECY of MATTER ; either 


30 


ignoring the very existence of supernatural, supereminent mind, 
or making it the mere bond-slave or instrument of matter—a “tab- 
ula rasa,” as they say—a “clean sheet,” on which omnipotent. mat- 
ter registers its hourly lessons and decrees. 

The second, or Pantheism, looks at the world from the side of 
mere force, and, regarding mind as a mere form of force, assumes 
its universal supremacy. And thus, having made mere force the 
only God, it, of course, finds God everywhere and in all things 
where this force exists and acts. ' 

The first can see no force outside of matter, and the last can 
hardly recognize any matter even apart from force; while both, 
alike, ignore the existence of mind in the highest and most proper 
sense of that term. . 

The spiritualists recognize, in some forin, a SPIRITUAL POWER, 
such as I have described, and sometimes spread it over the appro- 
priate realms of matter and force; making spiritual beings .the 
direct and proximate as well as the remote and original cause of 
many phenomena of force and of matter. Thus each of these 
modes of thought is based upon some one of the three great facts 
in the world; and from hence have derived their almost. incredible 
vitality and power over the human mind. And from each, alike, 
we may, as students of nature, derive some valuable instruction, 
which, as philosophers, we should gratefully accept, rejecting only 
the attendant error. 

To some of the assumptions of our terminology in physics I haye 
already alluded. But let it not be supposed that, even here, things 
may not be assumed as well as words. Probably, if any one 
should look over the text books of science, most in vogue with the 
most learned men, only some forty or fifty years since, he would 
be utterly amazed at the absurdities and follies which they contain. 
But do we not still assume that we know things which are not 
yet quite demonstrated? I confess I have many doubts about 
even our present attainments, at some points. 

In Astronomy, we still talk about having weighed the globes as 
complacently as a farmer speaks of weighing his pigs. It is often 
supposed to be mathematically demonstrated, not only that we 
know their weight, but that they are all solid, and that their gray- 
ity is most dense at their centers. But our processes of weighing 
resemble that of the Indian trader, who put his foot in one end of 
the scale when hesold shot to the natives.. In time, they discover- 
ed that it made a material difference whose foot was in the scale. 
So if we assume that the Earth and all the planets are solid spheres, 
that is one thing. But if they are, in fact, all hollow spheres, and 
occupied within only as vast depositories of this omnipresent and 
all-working force, without atoms or matter, in any form, then we 
have quite another man’s foot in the scale; and our ponderous 
worlds all turn to mere soap-bubbles, dallied in the hand of that 
Inrinire Power that controls all matter and all force, and in whose 
sight the created universe itself, with all its stupendous forces and 


31 


shows, is but a mere bauble—a trinket of a passing day—made for 

the amusement and development of mmp—self-determining and 

self-directing mind—a thing infinitely above all mere matter and 

all mere force—not only an original power, but the only such pow- 

er; nay, properly speaking, the only power in the universe of 
od. 

Again—it is supposed that the matter of the Sun and many 
other spheres is more luminous, in proportion to its size, than the 
matter of our Earth. But where is the proof? If our Northern 
lights are as bright as represented by Dr. Kane and others—and 
it the matter of our globe should be increased one million four 
hundred thousand times—(that is, made equal to the Sun,) and the 
brilliancy ot these lights be proportionally increased, who can say 
that our Earth would not appear as luminous, (that is, as perfectly 
enveloped in that force we call light,) to the distant spectator, as 
the Sun now does to us?’ True, this may not be so. But I do not 
think that this and many other points, apparently assumed in the 
books, have ever yet been demonstrated, or are soon likely to be 
so; and I apprehend that we shall all, at last, find that the wnz- 
Sormity of nature, of both the law of matter and force, as well as 
their simplicity and unity, is much greater in all the worlds than 
the books are wont to admit. Who knows that our Earth, just as 
it now is, would not at once become a sun, simply by increasing 
its size—that is, simply, by giving a wider field for this force 
called gravity, electricity, light, Northern lights, ete., to act in, and 
display itself upon. According to this notion, the Sun is simply, 
so to speak, a greater galvanic battery than the Earth, requiring, 
using, giving off, and receiving, more of this force, in its varied 
forms, only because it is larger and’ needs more, and perhaps gen- 
erates more. In this view of the case, there is no proof that the 
remotest planet in the solar system is any colder than the Sun it- 
self; for, like the Sun, each one may make its own fire, or generate 
its own heat, by a law compensating for its distance from the 
centre. 

Again-—where is the proof that either light or heat is diffused 
through all space fromthe Sun, or any other sphere, by universal 
radiation from the center, like the light of a candle, instead of 
flowing off toward, and only toward other orbs, in straight lines, 
as electricity moves toward the matter alone that attracts it. Can- 
dles and fires of earth throw their light all around, it may be, be- 
cause the matter that it seeks, or which attracts it, lies all around. 
But it is not so with the Sun. And that light and heat or any 
form of force run needlessly and wastefully through all vacuity, all 
space, to my mind is an assumption which, with many others of 
like sort, needs proof. In this view, above suggested, all planets 
shine in proportion to their size and their own inherent light, and 
also in proportion to the light attracted to them, or poured in par- 
allel lines upon them, from all other planets; and with us, of course, 
most of all, from the San—so that one side of the Moon gives us 


32 


its own light, angmented by the influx from the Sun ; and the other 
side, the same light, augmented only Ae stream or influx from 
the other planets, which is very dim. Now, if the contrary of this 
suggestion has been proved, surely the proof is not quite as demon- 
strable as such assumptions in science require; and for one I would 
like to see the proof of a multitude of similar points assumed made 
a little plainer before yielding my unquestioning and undoubtin 
assent. That this ferce of light, whatever it may be, is attract 
toward the denser medium, or matter, we have full proof. How 
much it is so attracted we cannot say. 

In Geology, too, we assume that these forces, or this force, exists 
and acts now in this way, and now in that—at one time the Earth 
is a bladder, full of water, and anon a bomb-shell, full of fire—one 
day we trip up Moses’ feet, and the next day we set him bolt up- 
right again, on a new pair of exegetical stilts. . 

In Physiology, we assume that this force, in the production of 
life, or “‘vital force,” as we call it, acts now on one principle and 
now on another; and while we agree that all embryos, seeds, and 
beings, of whatever sort, have, in time past, been created or pro- 
duced by this force, under the guiding power of God, yet we seem 
startled if any one suggests that the very same processes, in kind, 
may be, so far as needed, going on now; and that God has neither 
gone to sleep, nor this all-creating force become either idle or inac- 
tive. Said an eloquent one of old, “Why should it be deemed a 
thing incredible to you that God should raise the dead.” But we 
seem not to have faith enough to believe that he can make a grain of 
chess, or clover, or purslain seed, or a new ant’s egg, or fly, when he 
needs one—because it is against the laws of nature, as we say— 
that is, against the laws of the identical powrr and Forcs, that 
made all things, and still holds them as they are. But by what 
logic or law of nature do we infer that that power and force which 
has created all things, may not create still another thing, either the 
same or different in kind, where it is needed. If Adam was crea- 
ted with all the nameless forms of vermin in and about him, which 
are now known to live only on the human body, he must have had 
a merry time of it in his new Paradise, and I do not wonder he 
rebelled. But if not so created, some living creatures must have 
been produced since the original creation. And if living things, 
why not seeds and plants? 

In Mereoro1oey, it is generally assumed that tornadoes are 
caused by a vacuum, or partial vacuum, in the air. Now every 
fire and candle produces such a partial vacuum; but who ever saw, 
even on the smallest scale, such motions of the air produced by 
these vacuums? Is not the balloon or funnel shape of the tornado, 
also, exactly wrong end up, to suit the purposes of this theory? or, 
if not—are not the movements of the air upwards almost exactly 
the opposite to what they should be, on any possible theory of a 
mere vacuum, and air rushing in to fill it. And where is the evi- 
dence that such a vacuum exists at all? The usual fall of the baro- 


same efiect as a vacuum. And if such vacuum, or partial vacuum, 
is near the earth, why does it not sensibly affect the men and ani- 
mals thrown into it? But who ever heard of any such testimony. 
To the best of my knowledge, want of air is quite the last thing any 
man in a whirlwind thinks of complaining about. The waterspout 
and whirlwind, or tornado, are usually ascribed to the same cause. 
But what tendency there can be ina mere vacuum, over the sea, to 
lift up the water, instead of the yielding air around, and thus ere- 
ate a water-spout, I confess I cannot see, any better than I can see 
its tendency to create a whale or a rhinoceros. True, if there is a 
vacuum there, the water might jump up to fill it, instead of the 
more yielding air allaround; and so might the whale ; and, indeed, 
so he would, if he was there. Then, we shonld have, I suppose, a 
“whale-spout,” or a ‘whirl-whale,” instead of a water-spout or a 
whirlwind. Beside, what produces this vacuum? or does it pro- 
duce itself? Some force, of course, must doit. Why, then, not 
come right to the truth, at once, and state the simple fact, that this 
mighty, mysterious, all-moving, all-creating, and all-destroying 
force, which we see at work everywhere, but know nowhere, in ac- 
cordance with its own innate laws, in one of its modes of action, 
whirls air, seas, men, trees, temples and ships, all, atu aLrKe, aloft, 
and thus creates a whirlwind, and a “whirl-house,” ship, tree, and 
water, too—a “whirl-everything” that comes within its grasp; 
for this is simply and strictly art we know, as yet, about it. 

Is it asked, in any case, where this force comes from? Comes 
from! Better, far, ask where it does not come trom. 

Professor Farraday professes to have demonstrated, says the 
Atlantic Monthly Review, of July, 1860, that one single grain of 
water contains as much of this elemental force, in the form com- 
monly called electricity, as can be accumulated in eight hundred 
thousand Leyden jars, each requiring to charge it thirty turns of 
the large machine at the Royal Institution. If this is so, God, the 
Infinite Creator, is, surely, not likely to become bankrupt in an 
ever-present available force, either on sea or land, to make all 
things, at any moment, either whirl or stand, live or die, as he 
pleases. Doubtless, his law of volition and action will continue to 
be, as it ever has been, somewhat fixed and constant; and thus make 
for us, and for all our intelligences and sciences, that uniformity 
of phenomena which we are pleased (looking amazing wise all the 
while) to call the “Law or Nature.” ut his internal resources of 
PowER, and his external magazines of rorcr, will‘not be likely to 
become soon exhausted, even should whirlwinds, tornadoes and 
waterspouts be greatly increased, or a new seed now and then 
sprout and grow, or even a new animal be created; yea, whole 
globes, systems, and spheres, of new suns, earths, men, animals, 
and trees. ; 


—4 


ology, mesmerism, biology, spiritualisin, etc., etc. Well; I we 
remember the day when we students of old Yale were cautioned 
against phrenology, as the great antichrist of the times, and the 
temptation of the devil. Now the necessary position of the clergy in 
human society, in all ages, makes them so prone to be conserva- 
tive, that they often have regarded a new thought as a temptation 
of the devil, (though in our times their love of knowledge is brave- 
ly overcoming this weakness of fear,) and I admit it may be so; 
though IJ think that, at least, some of the new thoughts that have 
come into the world under the common fate of being denounced 
as the children cf the devil, have actually sprung from the power 
of God, wielding according to its flxed laws, that mighty force that 
moves the world, in all outward manifestations, both of matter and 
of mind. True, I would regard the old adage, and “give the devil 
his due;” but to give him everything, that is really worth giving 
to any body or being, is a little too much. Ido not think him 
worthy of that honor. And as he has nor succeeded in running 
away with astronomy, geology, electricity and gravity, in olden 
time, I am opposed to bequeathing to him any new manifestation 
whatever, of either PowER, FORCE or MATTER, mind, motion or 
atoms. Nor do I assume, that we, as yet, understand the full play 
and interplay, action and reaction, of mind on mind, or power on 
power, power on force, and force on matter, throughout the whole 
universe of God, natural and spiritual, so as to be able to say pre- 
cisely, and most punctiliously, this old thing, which we do under- 
stand, is of God, and this new thing, which we do not as yet un- 
derstand, is of the devil; for I consider it, at least scientifically, if 
not theologically, possible that God knows and understands several 
things which we do not, and are not likely to, even in this most en- 
lightened and democratic nineteenth century. At all events, as 
philosophers, we shall, in this age, as in ages past, learn more by 
watching and recording facts, than we shall by berating the devil, 
ever assured that powER, FORCE and MATTER, working by their own 
laws, are adequate to all we see and know, without the devil’s help, 
except in his own appropriate work and sphere; and I have never 
known him to become as yet the father of a new science or the 
creator of a new fact. 

To inquire and examine fearlessly and critically, into these and 
all other phenomena, is one of the ends of this Association. In 
what weakness and fear it began its being, and amid what toil, and 
want, and poverty, it has, thus far, continued to struggle, there are 
some present who well know. And it its working officers and 
members have not literally worked for nothing and lived upon 
nothing, they have come so near it as utterly to spoil the remark 
asa figure of speech. The report of what they have done, will be. 
presented by the superintendents of the several departments. 


35 


But, my friends, why should not this society, with such success 
as it hasalready attained, and such talent and such laborers in its be- 
half, even though homeless and penniless, be in good heart? Is it 
not the poor, raged, frugal and hard working boy that ever makes 
the man? Who now are the two prominent candidates for the 
highest office in the gift of the civilized world? The one is a poor 
orphan and the other a poor rail-splitter. So may it be with our 
Association. Nurtured in poverty and want of all things, it shall 
yet rise through usefulness to glory; for such is the order of nature 
andof God. ‘To this end all power and all force tends; and to this 
law all nature and matter must submit. Goon then, my friends, 
with thanks for the past and good hope for the future. Who, 
umong us, in that first hour of our Ww eakness—the natal hour of 
our Association—thought, then, that as much would be actually 
achieved in ten years, as has alr eady been done in two? and that, 
too, although the times have been seemingly all against us. It is 
true that we owe obligations to many friends, both as individuals 
and as associations; to the hospitable citizens of this place; to the 
guardians of the Normal School here; and to our great State Asso- 
ciations, Agricultural and Horticultural snow represented here; to the 
editors of the State, and to many others who cannot be mentioned— 
for they have all given us a hearty God-speed, anda helping hand, 
whenever they could. We, also, owe especial thanks to the gentle- 
manly conductors and guardians of our various railroads, whose gen- 
erosity and patriotism ever leads them to favor a good cause, q juite 
up to, and sometimes even. beyond, the extent of their real a bility. 
Nor should we for eet that noble corps of Teachers, the Illinois State 
Teachers’ Association, at one of whose annual meetings the first 
idea of this Society was suggested, and so many of whom have co- 
operated and sympathised with it in allits labors and trials. 

But the speaker owes to you, on the other hand, an apology, as 
well as thanks, in leaving again the office, with which you have seen 
fit to honor him for the two past years, in your hands. I frankly 
told you in the outset, that I could personally do but little for you; 
and unexpected events have rendered even that little far less than I 
intended—so very little in comparison to what others have done, that 
I could not let this occasion pass without distinctly adverting to it. 
But that little has been done cheerfully—most cheerfully, and I 
only now crave your pardon, that it has not been more. 

Go on, then, my friends, with good heart and good hope. Use 
POWER—grasp rorce—control marreR—and thus, as thus mortal 
beings only may, serve man and glorify God. 


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Daa eo eT 


THE GREAT TORNADO OF 1860. 


By James Suaw, of Mt. Carroll. 


The great Tornado, of June 3d, 1860, which swept, like the be- 
som of destruction, over the northern counties of our State, deserves 
more than the passing newspaper notices it received at the time of 
its occurrence. In magnitude it was the greatest in the history of 
storms. It originated far off on the prairies of the northwest; 
traveled in a southeasterly direction until it approached the Mis- 
sissippi river; then gradually veered round towards the east in a 
crescent shaped pathway, until it assumed a northeastern course, 
on which it continued, passing over Lake Michigan and the Penin- 
sular State, till its force was spent, after a five hundred mile race. 
And here a strange fact might be noted. All the great tornadoes 
of long continued tracks, of which we have any knowledge, origi- 
nated near the same spot. Another, near the time of the great 
Tornado, swept along down to the southward, near the Missouri 
river, crossed into Illinois in the region of Alton, wheeled round 
towards the east and north, very similar, though less violent than 
the one of which we write. In 1844 a terrific whirlwind came 
down from the prairies of Northwestern Iowa, crossed the Missis- 
sippi not far from the crossing place of the June storm of the present 
year; then pursued almost its exact pathway across Whiteside 
and Lee counties in our own State. 

Not only the vast destruction of life and property in the great 
Tornado of 1860, but many scientific questions, heretofore but im- 
perfectly understood, demand the attention of the thinking, and 
turn hither the eyes of the scientific world. An unexplored field 
opens up at the very first inquiry into the causes and philosophy 
of these tornadoes. Little is understoodof them. They have been 
chiefly observed within the tropics—on the seas. The yielding 
waters closed over their pathway. Facts, data, phenomena, could 
not be collected. The little we did know about them is completely 
at fault, when we come to explain the long, revolving storms of 
our mighty prairies of the West. New facts battle all our science. 


38 


Old problems must be resolved. The deep philosophy of storms ; 
the knowledge of “the winds in his circuit ;” the forces of electri- 
city, heat, magnetism ; the laws of fluids in motion; a keen insight 
into the mysteries of meteorology—all these, and more, must be 
well understood before we can solve all the problems attending 
these terrible storms. The fantastic modes in which the mighty 
forces of Nature sometimes act puzzle our most learned and scien- 
tific men. This was doubly so in the great Tornado of 1860. 
Was it the pressure of the mighty storm wind; was it a display of 
the electricity of the atmosphere ; was it some mightier power that 
produced results so contradictory and almost omnipotent? Sci- 
ence is now deeply engaged in the investigation of these questions. 

She needs in this work facts, data, phenomena. Every one, who 
has any, should give them to the world. A circumstantial detail 
of the minutest may prove of much importance. For such a pur- 
pose, also, to add a few crude thoughts of my own, this paper is 
prepared. 

The subject cannot be better introduced than by some quotations 
from a sermon, preached in this village by the Rev. O. D. W. 
White, a short time after the event itcommemorated. He, in com- 
pany with the writer, visited the Tornado’s track, where its great- 
est power was displayed. Out of good eyes he looked, and treas- 
ured their observations in a wisdom loving mind. 

After describing the beauty and stillness of the holy Sabbath af- 
ternoon, by way of contrast, he proceeded: “There was a change 
—an appalling change. There came a wind, a rumbling, a rush, a 
crash, a whirl, a shriek, a wail, followed by a desolation that has 
sent mourning through the land—whose saddening echoes will be 
heard tor ages to come. More than half a century will have elapsed 
before the scene will have been erased from the memories of eye 
witnesses. In the after part of the day the clouds began to con- 
gregate as they are wont to do about the western horizon. At 
first they seemed to have met, like holy angels, for purposes of 
mercy, to shed the gentle rain upon the thirsty field and water the 
husbandman’s toil. But soon they began to be disturbed and utter 
tones of anger, and pierce each other with arrows of fiery lightning. 
And then advancing, as a mighty army sweeping over the battle- 
field, they commenced their dire work of devastation and death. 
Everywhere in the course of the angry Tornado trees were uproot- 
ed and tossed into the air like feathers. The very land was scoop- 
ed up like the sands in the desert. [imbedded rocks were torn 
from their ancient resting places. Fences, barns, houses, cattle, 
horses, sheep, fowls; with men, women and children, were caught 
up amid the darkened folds of the whirlwind, to be dashed down 
again and crushed against the unyielding earth, * * * * 
The storm has been traced in its track, according to latest accounts, 
more than two hundred miles west of the Mississippi river. When 
it was first seen it was advancing in two columns, which were six 
or eight miles apart. After passing Cedar Rapids, where some 


30 


were killed and a number wounded under the ruins of razed build- 
ings, the columns united their forces, as they were about tomake a 
furious charge upon the denser popuiation of Iowa. Mechanics- 
ville, De Witt, Camanche, Albany, Lindon, Como—all beautiful 
and growing towns—were the principal points of the loss of life 
and property. The list of mortality is yet imperfect; but it is 
known that over one hundred and fifty souls were precipitated into 
eternity ; and most of them amidst the wildest contusion of warring 
elements. In some instances whole families were blotted out of 
existence. In others, children were snatched from their mothers’ 
arms and thrown into the angry vortex. Again, others have been 
left orphans, homeless, clotheless, foodless, and I were about to say 
friendless ; but no; thank God, thousands of kind hearts weep for 
the orphan ones; who would take them to their homes of pleasure 
and of plenty. The list of the wounded is also imperfect. But it 
is keeping within bounds to say that over two hundred are now 
suffering from wounds and bruises—some of whom will recover 
wholly, while others will be disabled for life. As to the destrue- 
tion of property, the loss will only be estimated by the million. 
Many years will have elapsed before the desolated district will re- 
cover its wealth, population, and wonted activity. In the course 
of time the wound may be healed; but the deep pitted cicatrix 
will be worn by the States of Iowa and Illinois till the time of their 
latter days. 

“To philosophize upon this particular storm would require us to 
give the history of winds, their causes and courses, both in the 
tropical and extra-tropical regions. While propriety forbids this it 
may admit some few remarks. Some of the characteristics of this 
storm were these: The whirlwind assumed the form of an invert- 
ed cone. It had an axis on which it revolved, having one pole— 
the positive—in the clouds, and the other—the negative—on the 
earth. It possessed three motions: centrifugal, centripetal, and 
vertical. by the first it was propelled forward at the rate of sixty 
miles per hour; by the second, it revolved on its axis at a much 
vreater velocity ; while the third kept it dancing up and down in 
the air something like the boy’s kite. Having a zigzag course, it 
traveled to the northeast, directly under the track of the returning 
northeast trade winds. Its centripetal motion, like all such winds 
north of the Equator, was from right to left, or contrary to the motion 
of the hands of a watch. At the same time it was highly charged 
with electricity, as evinced by electric phenomena, such as picking 
hens and geese, as electricity only can do; stripping tires from cart 
wheels and laying them out straight on the ground. When such 
elements are contending so furiously, it is not strange that every- 
thing in their course is destroyed. 

“Trom these well known data the following hypothesis may be 
given: It was formed by the intersection of two currents of air, 
namely : the northeast trade winds that had veered around by the 
north to westward, and the returning winds from the sonthwest. 


40 


These two intersecting motions produced a third and intermediate 
one, which, with the rotary motion of the earth, gave the storm a 
northeast direction. 

“This Tornado seems to be out of place, or lost, both as to time 
and latitude. Science has recorded but one Tornado as early as 
the month of June, and that was a marine one. It occurred in 
1831, in the latitude of Trinidad. The season for tornadoes is 
during August, September and October—seldom earlier or later. 
Their well known regions are the West Indies, Indian Ocean, and 
the Chinese Sea. Ilence, any recurrence of this calamity is not 
likely to be suffered soon, if ever.” 

In addition to these characteristics, the following phenomena or 
appearances of the storm from this town, some twenty-five miles 
north of the Tornado’s track, at its nearest point are worthy of 
preservation. Towards sundown of that day an ordinary looking 
thunder cloud was observed to be passing along the horizon from 
the southwest towards the east. As it came nearer, the clouds 
were observed to be in violent agitation. A low, ominous roar, 
began to be heard, increasing in loudness every moment. A con- 
stant rumbling of thunder, accompanied the short crackling sound 
in theair. The finest electrical display it has ever been my lot to 
witness was kept up all the time. The whole black mass of mov- 
ing storm cloud seemed a vast celestial bonfire, so vividly did the 
lightnings illumine its shadowy edges, and stream through its 
troubled folds. The Storm Fiend seemed to rage with demoniac 
fury. The air was ina high state of electrical excitement. White, 
fleecy clouds floated about the denser mass, whence proceeded the 
roar. The cumuli and cirri moved slowly about and around the 
terrible nimbus cloud of the center. Thus the storm approached 
its nearest point; then died away towards the east, following the 
steps of the twilight, until stillness and darkness together came, 
and closed over earth. 

The next morning our county was literally strewn over with 
bits of shingles and light wood, tin cups, pie pans, fragments of 
papers and letters, and many kinds of light articles. This was 
true of the whole country over which the Tornado passed. These, 
and kindred light articles, were scattered for fifty miles on either 

..@ of the whirlwind’s path. A few days after the storm, as an in- 
telligent farmer of our county was plowing in his fields, an old let- 
ter attracted his attention. It was dated in the same county in 
Pennsylvania from which he had originally emigrated to this coun- 
try; written by aman whom he knew; about a transaction in 
which he was interested; and addressed to a friend of his own 
then living near DeWitt, in Iowa. He immediately left his plow — 
and arrived at DeWitt in time to sympathize in a scene of sorrow 
and death. The honse had been taken up in the arms of the storm — 
and scattered in pieces over the land; and this scrap had floated — 
sixty miles and told the husbandman of his friend’s distress. 


4} 


This phenomenon is easily explained. These articles were 
caught up in the spiral folds of the hurricane, borne aloft until its 
whirling motion was spent; then carried off in different directions 
by the upper currents of the: atmosphere. The light ones of course 
would travel to the greatest distances. Some authorities have de- 
nied the rotary movement of these tornadoes; but the fact is too 
well established by the testimony of observers, and by the effects of 
the whirl, to be gainsayed. I “myself observed one later in the 
season pass over the eastern part of our county. Its force was soon 
spent, but for a few miles it was exceedingly violent, lifting one barn 
from its foundation, and i injuring everything i m its way. The at- 
mosphere was in a high state of electrical excitement. A number 
of bright looking clouds moved rapidly, like sheep chasing each 
other, ‘round an invisible center. Indeed, every one who has ever 
seen one of these storms, has noticed, the very first thing, the re- 
volving motion of all ascending substances. Hurricanes, whirl- 
winds, tornadoes, waterspouts, typhoons, cyclones, doldrums—all 
these have an advancing motion as well as a rapid motion of a ro- 
tatory kind. So, our recent Illinois tornadoes have had this mo- 
tion in a violent decree. 

To those living in and near the track of the storm, its approach 
had the appearance of an elephant; the clouds being after the 
similitude of its body, and the funnel shaped Tornado, looking like 
a trunk, the lower part of which kept swinging about with an un- 
steady, swaying motion. This left a zigzag track upon the ground, 
the reason of which will be noticed hereafter. Citizens of Caman- 
che all say that fleecy clouds were floating in a troubled manner 

about the air, often breaking and showing glimpses of blue sky be- 
yond. These, at intervals poured down showers of big rain drops, 
mingled sometimes with hail. A gentle wind blew from the north- 
west. A terrible roar came from the same direction. While it 
was yet at a distance a dead calm came over the town. Then a 
violent east wind sprung up. Then, in a moment, the ereat Tor- 

nado, like the besom of destruction, swept the ill-starred town into 
ruins. Then a violent west wind followed the broom of the mighty 
storm. 

This fact seems well established as the beginning of our data, 
viz: that the wind blew violently towards the storm as it passed 
along from every point of the compass. At Camanche, we have 
already seen, the Tornado was immediately preceded by a strong 
east wind and followed by awest one. The ferry boat in the river 
opposite the town was driven by the first of these upon the Iowa 
shore ; there it was whirled about by the Tornado; a few minutes 
afterwards it was driven upon the Illinois shore and dashed in 
pieces. In one place I was informed a tree grew, forked near the 
ground. One of its parts fell in one direction, the other, in the 
other, from this same cause. Along the northern ver we of the 
track, of greatest force, trees and ev erything else were blown to- 
wards the south 1, along ‘the southern they were blown towards the 


ane | 


42 


north. Everybody who saw the town afterwards, remembers the 
chimney blown from a fine residence in the southern part of the 
town, and stuck endways into the ground, north of the house. 
These are facts. Near the center of the whirl large locust trees 
were twisted and wrenched off near the ground. Furniture was 
shivered into oven wood. In one instance I noticed where the 
under story of a house had been blown out and destroyed, and the 
upper one had settled down almost uninjured upon the foundation. 
Iron seemed to have been most strangely affected. In the dwell- 
ing house first alluded to, the stoves were all blown or taken out 
of the doors and windows, and strangely broken up, while in other 
respects the house was little injured. All testify as to this strange 
effect upon iron; though only afew at the time noticed any marked 
electrical phenomena in connection with it. Some, also, noticed 
indications of a vacuum, while the hurricane was upon them, such 
a peculiar sensation in the ears, and an unnatural loudness of the 
human voice. Many, also, testify that there was a great and unnat- 
ural heat in this vortex or vacuum. 

Such were the data gathered in Camanche. In Albany and 
other places I had these observations confirmed. One instance in 
Albany might be noticed, going to strengthen the supposed in- 
rushing direction of the wind. Two houses were demolished. 
Articles from the cupboards of each were found in the other’s yard, 
after all was over. As the houses were on an east and west line, 
the good women folks could see how the dishes went from the 
western into the eastern yard, but were sorely puzzled as to how 
those from the eastern house got into the western yard, against the 
course of the greatstorm. They had not noticed the previous wind 
from the east. 

In order to preserve all the data possible, it will be proper to 
insert here some observations in regard to recent Illinois Tornadoes, 
made by Prof. Turner, at the last meeting of the Lllinois State Nat- 
ural History Society. The first one of which he speaks occurred 
ten miles south ot Jacksonville, in May, 1859:— 

“This tornado was one of great force and terror. It not only 
prostated trees, houses and fences in its path, killing and wounding 
many persons and animals, but it seemed singularly and unaccount- 
ably to break and tear in pieces, to utterly demolish and destroy 
every thing it touched near the center of its path. Its track coy- 
ered an area of some ten miles in length, and one-half to three- 
quarters of a mile wide, as the theater of its greatest fury and 
power. Houses, men, trees, animals, and even two-horse wagons 
were whirled aloft high in the air, and literally shivered to pieces. 
The weaker parts of wagons were not only broken, but the tires 
were torn off, cut in two and straightened out s¢razght, or crumpled 
into strange shapes and thrown with great fury to the ground; 
other parts were shivered almost to atoms, and in one instance, 
even the hub was broken square in two by the violence of the 
wrench in stripping the tire and other parts from the wheel. Tails 


43 


and other timbers were not simply blown away, but literally made 
into kindling wood, so as to be unfit for any other use. Persons 
were stripped of their clothes, and even the fowls, in many cases, 
had all their feathers stripped clean from off them. Most of the 
fowls treated in this manner, were found dead, as well as the other 
animals that were in the center of the path of the Tornado, but 
some of them still lived. The only persons known to the narra- 
tor, who were in the very center of the track of the Tornado and 
escaped alive, were Mr. H. M.Cowell and his hired man. Mr. 
Cowell is a plain, uneducated farmer, of honest and unpretend- 
ing character, and a man who has no philosophical or metaphysi- 
cal theories of any sort to’ repel or defend; indeed, he never read 
a book of any sort in his life, and, in the opinion of the narrator, 
is wholly unable to read or write, though a man of good character 
and good sense. This was stated by the narrator to show the kind 
of man whose account was to be taken of the appearances inside 
of the Tornado. 

“At the time of the appearance of the tornado cloud in the 
southwest, at five o'clock, ep. m., May 26, 1859, Mr. Cowell was 
plowing in the field, at some distance from his house, with an old 
steady pair of farm horses. He saw the frightful, balloon-shaped 
cloud approaching directly toward him very rapidly from the 
southwest, while a steady wind was then blowing directly against 
the cloud from the northeast. The advancing cloud was of a 
distinct balloon or funnel shape, and then appeared to him from 
his position, peculiarly bright and luminous, not at all black or 
dark in any of its parts, except at its base or bottom. The tup 
part of the cloud particularly appeared to be in terrific agitation, 
much like the foam on the topof a large boiling cauldron. Greatly 
alarmed at the threatening and singular appearance, he at once 
attempted to drive his horses and plow to the house, which was 
about a quarter of a mile distant. In doing this his course in the 
field lay for some distance in the same line with that of the ap- 
proaching storm; that is, to the northeast. He had not proceeded 
far before there seemed a lull in the northeast wind and a dead 
calm. The horses suddenly took fright, and refusing to advance, 
commenced rearing and plunging in their traces. Their manes 
and tails and all their hair “stood right out straight” as he ex- 
pressed it, and they only jumped up and down without advancing. 
The iron on the harness, traces and plow, in his language, “seemed 
all covered with fire.” He felt a violent pulling of his own hair, 
which left “his head sore for some days,” and the hair itself rigid 
and inflexible. He tried to unhitech the traces, but something 
seemed to prevent him; he felt a violent twitching of his hands; 
but finally succeeded, and mounting upon one horse he succeeded 
in making him advance, though his fright and his rearing and 
plunging and the peculiar appearance of his mane and tail contin- 
ued till he got ont of the direct line of the storm which was for 
some minutes. He then turned from and out of the line of the 


44 


storm toward the house. Then this appearance wholly subsided, 
and he turned to the stable, put his horses in, and ran towards his 
house. He had got almost to the house before the wind began to 
blow. Then it almost instantly hurled house and all away with it. 
But as the cloud passed over, as soon as he came within it, its whole 
appearance was changed. Instead of being bright, it was pitch 
dark, so dark that he could see nothing at a:l until he came to the 
center, when it was light again, making the impression on his mind 
that the dark part of the cloud was a mere shell, like the outside 
section of atunnel. Mr. Cowell distinctly states that while he 
was, for those few moments, riding in the direct path of the storm, 
the light was so brilliant that he could‘not endure it with his eyes 
open, and for the most part kept them shut; while the cloud be- 
hind in the horizon, still appeared as before, yet there was no 
wind, no thunder, and no noise whatever, except the murmuring 
sound of the advancing tempest, which of itself was not audible 
at first. He thinks he thus rode in the direct path of the storm 
about fifty yards before he turned to go to the house. As he de- 
parted from the center of the whirl, he experienced these phenom- 
ena less and less sensibly, and before he reached the stable there 
was nothing of it. 

“Mr Cowell’s hired man, Mr. Alex. Campbell, who was at work 
in another part of the field not far distant, in passing also to the 
house, went directly across the track of the storm, which Mr. 
Cowell had crossed obliquely. He was also as much frightened at 
the light and the shocks he experienced, and shut his eyes as much 
as he could, and ran and soon passed through it. 

“Mr. Cowell states that others experienced similar effects who 
were near, though not in the center of the whirl. 

‘“‘When the terrific whirl struck the house, which was a little at 
one side, as supposed, of the exact center of the storm, it swept 
everything before it, even tearing up the brick foundation of the 
chimney for a foot beluw the surtace of the earth; stripping all the 
feathers off from some of the hens and turkeys, as perfectly clean 
as if picked for the table. Some, though badly plucked, and made 
entirely blind, still lived. But no thunder at all was noticed, and 
10 great noise whatever was heard while in the center of the dark 
cloud, though the roar to those a littie distance without was ter- 
rific. 

“The narrator stated that one John Ray reported that the Ver- 
non church, surrounded by an Osage orange hedge, was taken up. 
with its brick foundation, and all together set over the hedge, which 
was not bruised by the passage of the honse, and not a brick of 
the foundation was left inside the yard. The house was set down 
again, and left quite whole. 

“The narrator said that Dr. Ford, of New York, reported other 
instances of tornadoes, in which persons had their clothing entirely 
stripped from their backs. 


45 


“How much, said Prof. Turner, of all these strange and almost 
incredible reports was due to alarm, or mistake, or misapprehension, 
he had no means of knowing. He only reported the substance of 
the facts as reported to him, and quite a little pamphlet might be 
filled with details, equally incredible, reported by persons of un- 
doubted veracity, the above being only given as samples of the 
strange facts that are so reported. 

“But in May, 1860, a whirlwind of less note passed over the so- 
ealled Hillsboro farm, the residence of Prof. Turner himself, tear- 
ing down the fences, tearing the roofs completely from the larger 
buildings, sweeping away the smaller ones, etc., ete. He had care- 
fully and accurately examined this ground during all the time the 
superintendence of the needed repairs was going on. And he es- 
pecially noticed that the old rotten glass windows in the brick 
house, on the windward side as well as on ali sides, were left perfectly 
whole and sound in their places, not one being blown out or broken, 
although the sash of some five or six of them was so rotten that a 
child could have pushed them inward with its thumb. and finger; 
while the doors of the house and barn, all stout and strong, were 
blown inward with such violence as even to tear off heavy iron 
hinges, and to tear out heavy pieces of oak timber, and the entire 
L of the house and roof and gables, were swept away from the 
same building and the same exposure. 

“Prot. Turner said that on no theory he had ever before admit- 
ted, could he account for this very singular fact as well as the facts 
reported by Mr. Cowell and others. And he would inquire if 
ever any one had heard of the windows of a house in tolerable 
repair being blown in by a tornado, while the building was lett 
standing; or if if was common, as in this case, to tear the strong 
parts of the house, and leave the weak and even rotten windows 
and wood on such, unharmed? If so, what was the cause? He 
asked: Did it not appear self evident that mere pressure of any 
sort would burst in the frail windows of a house far sooner than 
any other part of it? And yet the reverse had certainly occurred 
in the instance narrated by him, and coming within his own expe- 
rience.” 

These are all the data I have beeu able to gather in regard to 
Recent Tornadoes in Lilinois. Even these need confirmation. 
No two persons can be found after a tornado who will agree in all 
things. Terror takes away the power of correct observation. Il- 
lusions deceive the eye. 

Science, before she can establish her deductions, must have more 
data—better established facts. Observers over the prairies of the 
Northwest must gather these in the coming years. 

A few crude speculations, however, will here be offered in re- 
gard to the scientitic questions presented. If new data demand it, 
they can be corrected. How do the winds form themselves into a 
whirl? Can their pressure and mechanical force produce all the 
physical results observable after such a storm asthe one under con- 


46 


sideration? Is electricity the cause, or are its phenomena only the 
accompaniments intensified of a thunder storm, displayed in a 
tornado? Can electricity, by direct transference of the fluid, or 
by induction, as in the pith-balls of school room experiments, ac- 
count for such mighty and fearful displays of power ? 

Some philosophers and geographers explain all rotary storms to 
be the result of the meeting of two winds at an angle and 
their turning upon a center. Ifa cloud happen to be between 
these two winds, near the place of meeting, it would be rapidly 
turned round. Condensation and the electrical phenomena of a 
thunder-storm, if added, would give all the forces at work in a tor- 
nado. Such are the causes shadowed in the first quotation above, 
and also set down in our text books in geography and philosophy. 
This hypothesis, however, is exploded by more recent develop- 
ments in Meteorology and Atmospheric Electricity. 

In studying the philosophy of winds, it is a good thing to read 
the lessons of analogy in its laws of fluids in motion in the rivers 
and seas. The ar ocean has much in common with the earth ocean. 
Both have mysterious movements —tides, currents, eerial and 
ocean streams, eddies, mzelstroms, whirlpools, waterspouts—hurri- 
canes, tornadoes, whirlwinds—these have a family resemblance. 
At the confluence of two streams of water, even in a little brook, 
whirlpools are formed. The meeting of adverse ocean streams 
would present similar phenomena. These would travel but a short 
distance. The like might take place at the meeting of two adverse 
winds. But the whirl would be gentle—its path would be short. In 
the Indian Ocean and Chinese Seas, and in intertropical countries 
generally, where there is much disturbance of the air currents on ac- 
count of the fierce contest between the Trades and Monsoons, hur- 
ricanes, cyclones, doldrums, and waterspouts, are of frequent oc- 
currence and of short duration—averaging but a few miles in 
length. 

But if this be the true theory, why not have tornadoes and whirl- 
winds in the winter and spring? Certainty the winds are then 
fiercer and contrarier than at any other season of the year. Yet, 
instead of frequent rotary movements of the atmosphere, no one 
ever saw them at all in the winter or early springtime. 

In addition to air in motion, heat and electricity both must be 
present in active manifestation. Some scientists consider one, 
some the other, as the great cause of tornadoes and all kindred 
storms. The fact—if it be a fact—that such storms whirl in one 
direction —to wit: contrary to the hands of a watch—in the North- 
ern hemisphere, and in a contrary direction in the Southern and 
opposite hemispheres, seems to argue that, the earth’s revolution 
upon its axis also has a modifying influence. 

Suppose that the air of some locality becomes heated from any 
cause. Of course the heated air would rise into the higher regions 
of the atmosphere. Currents of other air would flow in from all 
sides to supply its place. Becoming heated, they, too, would rise ; _ 


AT 


and, according to a well known law of motion, would receive a ro- 
tary movement, with a partial vacuum in the center; just as in 

water flowing through afunnel. Ifa handful of down be seatter- 
ed near the top of the chimney of a lighted kerosene lamp, this 
may be illustrated on a small scale. The uprising current of hot 
air will carry ail the particles which come into it upward, and 
gradually communicate to them a gyrating movement. Those out- 
side of the current will flow in, and rise as the others before them. 
And thus a whirlwind in miniature will be observable, as long as 
the cause continues. A large brush pile, or a house on fire, will 
afford a similar illustration, with the sparks and smoke and white- 
caps flying about. In all these cases there is, perhaps, a partial 
vacuum in the center—the resultant of this kind of motion. Wa- 
terspouts are mere shells, being hollow in the center. 

It seems a fact that the dew point and point of saturation lie 
lower comparatively over the mighty prairies of the Northwest. 
During the warm weather of summer, therefore, this lower and 
thin stratum of moist air, lying beneath the dew point, will be 
pressed down by the str ata of dry air above. Radiation from the 

earth and other causes will tend to heat the moist stratum reposing 
on the earth’s surface. This will produce a destruction of the at- 
mospheric equilibrium. Currents will flow towards the point of 
greatest heat, as above shown. As this lower, moist atmosphere 
rises into the cooler and dryer regions above, it will have its mois- 
ture rapidly condensed into clouds, or down-pouring rain. If 
electrical action now be added the tornado forces are complete. 

Thus, the Great Tornado of 1860 originated somewhere in the 
country of the Upper Missouri river. The Northwest winds bore 
it along, gently at first, but as the accumulation of momentum 
made it rage fiercer and rise higher into the air, it was caught by 
the returning trade winds from the Southwest, ‘carried round to- 
wards the Northeast, its greatest curvature in its earth marked 
path being where it crossed the Mississippi; which was also the 
place where it displayed its greatest force—the whole motion not 
being unlike a comet sweeping around its perihelion. ‘This ex- 
plains the action of the Tornado upon the ferry- -boat and dishes at 
Albany, the cause of the trees being blown inwards on both sides 
of the storm’s path, the East and West wind in rapid succession 
before and after its eae and the strange position of things af- 
ter it was all over. The key to the explanation of its zigzag mo- 
tion is also found here. Rey. Mr. Harsha, of Dixon, prepare red an 
accurate and beautiful map of the Tor nado’s track across Clinton 
county, in Iowa, and Whiteside and Lee counties, in [linois. The 
lesson of the map is very instructive. It teaches, that wherever 
the tornado changed from a direct line of advance, it was owing to 
some local obstr uetion, which cut off, or weakened, the inblowing 
air current from the side towards which the storm rushed. Thus, 
it always lett a direct path to hug along under a hill, or by the edge 
of a grove. When the obstruction was passed, the ‘direct course of 


48 


advance was again resumed. Observers all agree in saying that 
the top of the terrible, funnel-shaped cloud advanced in a straight 
_line, but that the lower part described this crooked path, as we 
have seen, by obstructions to the currents of air rushing in. Mr. 
H{arsha did much for the cause of science, and of humanity, too, 
in his study of the great Tornado, of which we speak. His labor 
of love in relieving the suffering will be remembered side by side 
with his labor of science in preparing a very instructive map of a 
part of its pathway. Jam indebted to him for many suggestive 
thoughts, as well as for the privilege of studying the map of which 
I have spoken. 

The peculiar state of the dew and saturation points being nearly 
the same over the prairies of the Northwest—in other words, the 
strata of upper and dry, cool atmosphere, and of iower, surtace, 
moist atmosphere, extending from the country of Nebraska to the 
great lakes ofthe Northeast, gave the Tornado a field for its long 
and terrific course. It scooped up, over that five hundred miles of 
sorrow and death, from the warmer atmosphere below the dew 
point, the wind for its raging whirl, the moisture to be condensed 
into rain and hail, and the very electricity which made it so much 
more dreadful. 

This explanation of the causes of tornadoes seems to be the result 
of the more recent study into the philosophy of storms. Not only 
tornadoes, but even ordinary thunder storms, are carried on, proba- 
bly, in the same way—by lower moist air rising and being con- 
densed in a much milder manner. 

Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, adopts substan- 
tially this hypothesis, after a careful study of the views of Loomis, 
Espy, Dr. Hare, Redfield, and others, who have observed and writ- 
ten upon storms; and also after a comparison of agreat amount of facts 
and data in possession of the Institution, of which he is Secretary. 

The electrical phenomena attendant upon these efforts of the at- 
mosphere to restore its broken equilibrium, next claim our atten- 
tion. Dr. Hare thinks electricity the cause of the tornado, and all 
such natural phenomena. This scientist attributes the violent up- 
ward motion of the air to a peculiar electrical state of the atmos- 
phere, in which, while the air is highly positive, the earth is neg- 
ative, and the bodies carried up are repelled by the earth and at- 
tracted by the cloud. Whether this is the true explanation or not, 
every one can see the great disturbance of the electrical equili- 
brium that must take place in a tornado. Asa rule, the electri- 
city of the atmosphere is positive ; that of the earth, negative. The 
same is true during a thunder storm. The greatest electricians of 
this and other countries have demonstrated this by many and la- 
borious experiments. As a tornado passes over the landscape, 
sucking up and condensing the surface strata of moist atmosphere, 
with all its electricity and latent heat, the ground under the cloud 
must be constantly exhausted and the cloud constantly and greatly 
surcharged. Hence, there wil! be constant discharges back to the 


49 


earth from the cloud. The equilibrium is constantly destroyed ; 
nature constantly seeks to restore it. Powerful attractions, repul- 
sions and inductions will take place almost with every stroke of 
lightning. ‘Tornadoes and many other influences, carry electricity 
up into the air. The air being a non-conductor, or rather, being 
imbued with imperfect insulating powers, the attempts of the elec- 
tricity to flow back again to the earth and restore the disturbed 
equilibrium between the ground and the clouds, are attended with 
various electrical phenomena. The tremulous and many-tinted 
undulations of the Aurora Borealis over the Arctic skies, is doubt- 
less nothing but electricity creeping back through poor conductors 
to the earth home, whence it had been enticed into the region of 
clouds. The fierce, unchained lightning, stabbing the earth as 
with the dagger of a god, is the same thing greatly intensified. 
The ravages of the tornado—with its “terrific and appalling gran- 
deur; now pausing fitfully, as if to select with malignant caprice 
the objects of its unsparing violence; now descending to earth, and 
again drawing itself up, with its deep, loud and sullen roar; its 
mysterious darkness; its apparent, self-moving, resistless revolu- 
tions, carrying upward branches of trees, beams of houses, and 
large objects of every description; its impetuous downward rush 
to the earth, and then again up to the sky; its sublime altitude, 
sometimes erect, and at other times inclined; its reeling and sweep- 
ing movements’—these may be the result of electricity suddenly 
accumulated, and bursting as suddenly out, before it has had time 
to discharge itself by more peaceful channels. Thus, Lieut. Jansen 
calls tornadoes “the circulating channels of electricity hidden in a 
deep night ;” and some authorities consider waterspouts as solely 
due to the same cause. 

Mysterious, all-pervading wonder, before whose phenomena 
science so often must stand dumb! Philosophers and scientists 
teil us its powerful agency works unseen on the relations of the 
parts and properties of all bodies, effecting changes in their constitu- 
tion and character so wonderful and minute that it may be consider- 
ed the chief agent of Nature, prime minister of Omnipoterce, the 
vicegerent of creative power. We also know that the lambent 
flame of the aurora; the laws of crystalization, health, vegetation ; 
the great convulsions of nature, as earthquakes, whirlwinds, water- 
spouts, tornadoes, thunder-storms, and many other phenomena, 
are accompanied with and often depend upon electricity, or some 
of its magnetic or galvanic forces. Indeed, this imponderable 
source of all power and thought may be nothing but the exertions 
of the Divine Mind, as He rules the universe of mind and matter 
and force. 

We think, however, that Mr. Espy has well nigh settled the 
question that electricity is not so much the cause as the conse- 
quence of a tornado or thunder-storm. But, whether cause or con- 
sequence, we can see how intense electrical action must be. Even 
the mechanical force of electricity, especially of lightning, is great 


<6 


50 


and often inexplicable. Professor Lovering states that pavements 
have been torn up; -hair and hoofs carried into trees; a hat trans- 
ported to the roof; the bark of trees detached below; leaves crisped 
on the under side; and sods turned up, by this force. The modus 
operandi of this force is as follows: Particles of air, suddenly elec- 
trified, fly asunder with a great explosive force, as do the pithballs. 
attached to the prime conductor and electrified. A stroke of light- 
ning will suddenly imbue the air within a tree or rock with this 
more than gunpowder explosiveness ; and they will be blown into 
fragments. The air thus acting may lift a church; or acting among 
the non-conducting feathers of a chicken, or goose, may throw 
them far from the body of the fowl; or may jerk the tire from a 
wagon wheel and straighten it along the cnet All the phenom- 
ena spoken of by Professor Turner, and all observed in the great 
Tornado, may also thus be explained. But if this were not enough, 
the great force of the wind, together with the violent inductions, 
attractions, repulsions, above alluded to, would give a catalogue of 
forces, whose effects would be multiform, indeed. 

A kite flown into the clouds and acted on by induction, will have 
all its electricity driven into the lower part of the string, from 
whence it may be drawn off in sparks. Soa tornado ciond, ex- 
tending high into the air, and acted on by induction, will have its 
lower extremity terrifically charged with electricity. Every flash 
to the earth will momentarily reverse the electrical condition of 
the cloud and the ground under it. Thus, mighty and conflicting 
forces will work out their designs on the grandest scale. “The 
tiny twinkle of Omnipotence” will be indeed seen and felt. 

Every one remembers the strange theory of some philosopher a 
few years ago, who proposed to produce rain by kindling great 
fires over an extensive tract of country. At the time he was con- 
sidered a crack-brained fanatic. But he had in his possession the 
true secret of storms. If he could have heated up a stratum of air, 
and charged it with moisture, he not only would have had a thun- 
der storm, but even might have had a tornado upon his hands. 

The summary we arrive at is this: The rarifaction of the at- 
mosphere in summer produces an unsettled state of the airin which 
the winds are liable to break loose from their controlling forces. A 
local heating causes a rush of winds to the place of disturbance. 
They meet in the center and rise ; generally with a whirling, gyra- 
tory motion. They will only take place at a peculiar state of the 
dew point and point of saturation in the atmosphere. ‘The whirl- 
ing vortex or vacuum will advance with the course of the wind in 
which it may happen to be. The low stratum of moist air lying 
below the dew point will be sucked in and carried into the upper 
atmosphere. The friction of the ascending moist air will produce 
fearful quantities of electricity. Rapid condensation will produce 
rain and hail; evolve more electricity ; and free great quantities of 
latent heat. The electricity of the clouds and earth will act byin- 
duction and mechanically. And thus, the tornado will be ‘self- 


51 


sustaining, so long as the conditions of the atmosphere are favora- 
ble. 

Many years may possibly elapse before the atmosphere will be 
able to furnish the materials for so long and violent a storm. 
Meantime, it is earnestly to be hoped, that patient and exact ob- 
servations will be made during the coming summer, wherever a 
tornado or thunder storm occurs. Among the facts to be noticed, 
the condition of the dew point before the storm ought to be care- 
fully known. The clouds ought to be closely scanned, to obtain 
their electrical conditions and the force and direction of the wind 
currents. Observations on the tornado’s direction, and whether 
the motion round the vortex is whirling, or upward; whether 
low lands, streams, groves, and hills influence its direction; lu- 
minousness, and width, and shape of tornado cloud; condition 
of the atmosphere before and after its passage; in short, every 
phenomena attendant upon it, from the minutest to the grandest, 
ought to be carefully observed. Especially, accurate surveys of 
the path of the storm, after its passage, noting accurately the di- 
rection in which trees and other objects are blown, should be made 
and preserved. Any and all such information, sent to the writer 
of this article, will be thankfully received, and used to the best of 
his ability. In this way we may be able to add some contribu- 
tions to the sum of human knowledge. 

Since writing the above some new facts in regard to our subject 
have been developed. Persons living near Lyndon, who were 
caught within the storm, assert that an intense coldness prevailed 
near the center. This is easily explainable from what has been 
before stated. The centrifugal force of the uprising, whirling cur- 
rents would produce a vacuum within, down which, at times, the 
upper and colder atmosphere would rush, mingled with rain and 
hail from the rapidly condensing cloud above. In this way a cen- 
tral spot would sometimes be very cold, notwithstanding it might 
be surrounded with rarified and heated air. 

T. B. Butler has written a book upon the “ Philosophy of the 
Weather,” in which he attacks, and in his own mind demolishes all 
the existing theories, and almost every conclusion arrived at by 
the most eminent meteorologists. He makes a perfect Zouave 
charge upon them all, sparing nothing, and builds up no new the- 
ories where he has torn down all the old ones. So far as he un- 
dertakes any explanation at all, it is that electricity is the cause of 
all meteorological phenomena. The earth, he argues, is a great 
magnet, surrounded with magnetic currents in the form of circles 
and curves, just as the currents of a strong magnet arrange the 
iron filing round it. These electric currents act upon the oxygen 
of the atmosphere and carry it along, producing the circulation of 
the atmosphere. In a tornado, according to this doctrine, a con- 
tinuous current or stream of electricity exists between the earth 
and the storm cloud; that these streams flow in from either side of 
the advancing storm, having polarity, and making a “law of cur- 


52 


vature ;” in short, ‘“ that currents of electricity alone could produce . 


the sudden vacuum by removing the air above.” His book is val- 
uable for the many facts and indefatigable labor in its pages, but 
utterly fails to establish the supposition that magnetism and elec- 
tricity account for all weather phenomena. The very arguments 
adduced, every fact brought forward to overthrow the theories of 
Espy, Redfield, and others, aus to establish them. As for in- 
stance, he denies that the wind blows from all points towards the 
center of a storm; but admits that it flows in from either side in a 


curved path. Very well. Now suppose a storm stands still and — 
the wind blows towards the center all round. This is what he ex- — 


pects to see made out. But give that storm a rapid onward mo- 


tion and things will be slightly disarranged. Add to this the air — 
rushing down in the middle and up the sides, and a great com- — 


plexity of motions will take place. Almost every objection urged 


against the theory, even the curved path of the inflowing lateral — 
air currents are capable of a mathematical demonstration by the ~ 
laws of motion and in accordance with the theories of Espy and — 
Redfield. The former of these supposes the gyratory motion of — 
the tornado; the latter the aspiratory, or that the air currents flow © 


in and up without any whirl. We think the true theory is a com- 
bination of both these, as advanced in a former part of this paper. 
In other words, the air flows in from all sides and begs to flow 
upwards in straight lines, but being subject to the law of motion, 


which makes fluids running through a funnel assume a rotary mo- — 
tion, it is soon thrown into a gyratory motion, which increases as — 


it gathers fresh momentum. 

iectiicity is not the cause, but the fearful accompaniment of a 
storm ; and in the tornado its fury is greatly increased by the fric- 
tion of the whirl and the rapid condensation of the vapor above. 


— Se ee ee ee 


2 
, 


GEOLOGY OF A SECTION OF THE ROCK 
RIVER VALLEY, 


FROM OREGON, IN OGLE COUNTY, TO STERLING, IN WHITESIDE COUNTY. 


Read before the Illinois Natural History Society, June 27th, 1860. 
By Oxtver Everett, M. D., of Dixon, Illinois. 


My object, in this paper, is to give some of the results of obser- 
vations made by me upon the geology of the Rock River Valley, 
in Lee county, and a part of Ogle and Whiteside counties, or from 
about Oregon, in Ogle county, to Sterling, in Whiteside county. 
The surface in this part of the country is much more rolling, or 
undulating, than in most parts of the State. This is particularly 
the case in the upper portion of the section alluded to, in Ogle 
county and a part of Lee county, where it is frequently cut up 
into deep ravines, on the sides of which the underlying rocks are 
often exposed to view; and the banks of Rock River and its tribu- 
taries frequently present bold, perpendicular bluffs of rock, from 
fifty to two hundred feet high, thus giving a tolerably good oppor- 
tunity for geological investigations. These features are most promi- 
nent in the region of one member of the geological series of which 
‘I shall hereafter speak, viz: the Upper or St. Peter’s Sandstone. 
In another section, where the Trenton Limerock underlies the drift, 
there are frequently found deep pits in the ground. These pits are 
generally more or less circular, and are from one to two or three 
rods in diameter, at the surface of the ground, and run to a point 
below. They are from ten to twenty and sometimes thirty feet 
deep, and have, evidently, been produced by the earth, in these 
places, falling into and being carried away by subterranean streams 
of water in the loose rock below. 

Below Dixon, although the surface is considerably undulating, 
it is not so abruptly broken by deep ravines, and the prairies gen- . 
erally slope gradually to the banks of the river, seldom exposing 
the rocks at all. Below Dixon there is very little woodland along 
the banks of the river, while above, between Dixon and Oregon, a 
considerable portion of the country along the river is covered with 


54 


timber. The timber is not generally of very heavy growth, al- 
though, in some places, on the bottom lands, it is quite large. It 
consists of the various species of oak and hickory common to the 
State, the black and white walnut, the sugar and silver-leaved ma- 
ple, box elder, (Negundo accrifolium,) sycamore, the red and white 
elm, hackberry, ash, linden, cottonwood, ete. The red cedar, the 
white pine, the ground hemlock, (Taxus Americana,) the black amd 
the paper or canoe birch, (Betula lenta and Betula papyracea,) are 
found on the extreme verge of the rocks overhanging the river and 
creeks, beyond the reach of the prairie fires. All these last men- 
tioned species, except the red cedar, are found, as far as I have ob- 


served, only upon the bluffs formed by the St. Peter’s Sandstone. . 


We should naturally expect to find on a soil produced from the dis- 
integration of this sandstone, some plants which are not common 
to the rich alluvial and clayey soils of a large portion of the State. 
Accordingly I have found several species not included in Dr. Lap- 
ham’s Catalogue, and some of them not in the additional lists sub- 
sequently made by Drs. Brendell and Bebb, and which I presume 
are not often found in other parts of the State. Among which I 
might name two species of vaccinium, the Aretostaphylos uvauisi, 
Lupenu perrennis, Campanula rotundifolia, Talinum teretifolium, 
Lobelia kalmii, Cerastium oblongifolium, Linaria canadensis, Fra- 
garia vesca, and the Viola lanceolata, which grows on the borders 
of ponds, or in wet places in this sandy soil. 

The drift formation, through this section, is probably not so 
thick nor so uniform in depth as in most parts of the State. There 
are many things in relation to it which have peculiar interest, but 
my object in this paper is to speak of the rock beneath it. 

There is, in this section of about thirty miles of the Rock River 
Valley, a pretty good opportunity to study several important mem- 
bers of the lower Silurian system, and some of the lowest strata 
of the upper Silurian series. 

Commencing at Oregon, with the St. Peter’s Sandstone, and as- 
cending the geological scale, as we go down the river, we find the 
Buff Limestone, (of Owen,) the Trenton Limestone, the Galena 
Limestone, and the shales, etc., representing the Hudson River 


group of the lower Silurian system, and the Niagara Limestone of . 


the upper Silurian series. 
ST. PETER’S SANDSTONE. 


The lowest rock which we find in the section under consideration 
is the Upper or St. Peter’s Sandstone. It is the prevailing rock 


along the river, from a mile above Oregon to about three miles be- 
low Grand De Tour, a distance of thirteen or fourteen miles. On 


the north-west side of the river, I think that in no place dves this 
rock appear on the surface more than two or three miles from the 
river. On the south-west side it extends several miles back from 


the river. I should think that the thickness of this rock could not — 


be less than two hundred feet, and probably more. The country 


ae et 


—s 


55 


where this rock prevails is characterized by great unevenness. It 
is frequently cut up into deep and sharp ravines, and, in many 
places, there are bold, precipitous bluffs, from one to two hundred 
feet high. I have not often found these bluffs capped with the 
Trenton Limestone, as spoken of by Prof. Hall as being the case 
in lowa. In many places this sandstone is interspersed with nu- 
merous horizontal bands or layers of iron, or sandstone so impreg- 
nated and cemented with the oxide of iron, as to be very firm and 
resisting. These layers are from less than half an inch to two inches 
in thickness, and occur, one above another, in some places but a few 
inches, and in others several feet apart. These layers resist the 
action of the atmosphere for a great length of time, and only give 
away from the disintegration and wearing away of the rock beneath, 
when they break off and fall from their own weight. Between 
these layers the rock is sometimes very loose and friable, easily 
worked away with the pick. 

It appears as if, during the deposition of this rock, that occasion- 
ally, in these localities, the surface was in some way covered with 
a sediment of the oxide of iron, which, acting as a cement, rendered 
this portion of the rock much harder and firmer than other parts 
of it. If you will examine one of these layers with a magnifying 
glass, you will see that they are made up principally of the same 
minute peculiarly formed grains of quartz, of which other portions 
of the rock is composed, stained and partially covered with the ox- 
ide of iron. We frequently find very beautiful ripple marks on 
these ferruginous layers. On some of them the impress of the ed- 
dies and ripples of the old Silurian ocean appear as fresh and _pal- 
pable as if produced but yesterday. These markings are sometimes 
very singular and curious, mimicking the forms of organized life. 
Here is a specimen which | have been at a loss to determine 
whether it has been produced by the action of water or is an im- 
pression of some organized being. This rock is composed of small 
rounded grains of pure limpid quartz, which have a singular uni- 
formity in their size and shape, in some places cohering so slightly 
as to crumble in the hand, and in other localities so firmly cemented 
as to make a good building stone. This rock is in some places of 
almost chalky whiteness, but more commonly it has a grayish as 
pect, while in other localities it has a reddish appearance, being 
stained with the oxide of iron. 

As to the economical uses of this rock. There are several quar- 
ries on Franklin creek, in Lee county, and in Ogle county, where 
it has been pretty extensively used for building, and cut into win- 
dow and door sills and caps. There was a beautiful arched bridge 
of cut stone, from one of these quarries, built over Franklin creek, 
for the Chicago and Fulton Railroad, when it was first constructed. 
Professor Hall says that this rock would make an excellent mate- 
rial for making glass. 

It will be perceived that this rock, as it is found in the valley of 
Rock River, varies considerably from the description of it given by 


56 


Professor Hall, as it occurs in Iowa. Instead of its being uniformly 
the loose friable rock, spoken of by Mr. Hall, with scarcely cohe- 
sion enough to enable him to obtain cabinet specimens of it, we fre- 
quently find it forming bold perpendicular, and sometimes over- 
hanging, cliffs, with strength and tenacity enough to make a good 
building stone. There are places where the rock is flinty and hard, 
and weathers out, like granite, in jagged and irregular peaks, high 
above the surface of the surrounding country. 


BUFF LIMESTONE. 


Next to the St. Peter’s Sandstone, and separated from it in some 
laces by two or three feet of shale and blueish clay, comes the Buff 
Ra tt of Owen, classed by Hall with the Trenton Limestone. 
This is a thick bedded, compact, semi-crystalline magnesian Lime- 
stone, in layers of from one to two feet in thickness. It crops out 
in many places above the St. Peter’s Sandstone. Between these 
thick ledges there are thin shaly layers, an inch or two in thick- 
ness, abounding in fossils. Although these layers are full of fos- 
sils, there appears to be but a very few species. They are very 
imperfect—most of them are casts, and appear to be such as are 
common to the Trenton Limestone proper. This rock is often 
quite fine-grained and compact, and makes an excellent building 
stone. From an analysis of specimens of this rock in lowa, Pro- 
fessor Hall thinks that it may be very useful for the manufacture 
of hydraulic cement, as its composition was found to more nearly 
resemble than any of our other magnesian limestones, that of the 
best rocks used for that purpose in other places. These thick bed- 
ded layers are from twelve to eighteen feet in thickness. 


TRENTON LIMESTONE. 


The Blue Limestone of the Western Geologists, or the Trenton 
Limestone of the New York survey, succeeds these magnesian beds. 
This rock is quite variable in its appearance. In some places it has 
a blueish color, particularly on a recent fracture, but more frequently 
it is of a dull buff color. It is not so thick bedded as the preceding 
rock, and is in some places quite shaly, and breaks up into small 
fragments when quarried. In other places the layers are compact 
and thick enough th make a good building stone. 

_ ‘There are vertical crevices frequently found in this rock, which 
are from two to fifteen inches in width. Sometimes they are filled 
with debris, and in other places are open and serve as channels for 
subterranean streams of water from the pits in the elevated ground 
back from the bluffs, which I have spoken of above. At the base of 
the bluff, after a heavy shower, or at the breaking up of the winter, 
swollen streams of turbid water may be seen rushing from them. 

The Trenton Limestone abounds in fossils. It is the oldest rock 
in this country in which we find a great profusion of the remains 
of organized beings, showing beyond doubt that the ocean of the 
lower Silurian era was filled with a multitude of the lower forms 


57 


of animal life. Here is a specimen not much more than twice as 
large as a man’s hand, that has representatives from three of the 

rand divisions of the animal kingdom. This central figure is a 

ne large Trilobite, a beautiful specimen of the Articulata; and 
here are several fragments of coral and the stem of an Encrinite 
from the Radiata, while the Molusca is represented by several of 
the Acephala and a Gasterapod. There are great numbers of Ar- 
thocerata found in this rock. Some of them are of very great size. 
I have seen sections of them that were eight inches in diameter. 
I have a part of one in my collection which is not more than six 
inches in diameter at its largest part, that is eight feet in length. 
Ammonites of considerable size are found in this rock. Among the 
Acephala are several species of Septeena. Strophomena, Orthis, etc., 
are common in some of the layers of this rock. 

This rock is somewhat extensively used for building material, al- 
though for that purpose it is not equal in value to the magnesian 
beds below it. It makes excellent lime, and is extensively used 
for that purpose. Some of the layers of this rock, in this locality, 
are made up almost exclusively of fossil shells and corals, and are 
very compact and fine-grained, and receive an excellent polish, 
making a very beautiful figured marble. The Trenton Limestone 
is found principally in the bend of the river, in the upper part of 
Lee county, extending about four miles south, and is also found in 
a narrow belt on the north-west side of the river, extending from 
Pine creek, in Ogle county, to- within a mile of Dixon. 


GALENA LIMESTONE. 


The Galena Limestone succeeds and rests upon the Trenton 
Limestone. The line of demarkation between this and the Trenton 
Limestone is not always easily ascertained. Layers, partaking 
sometimes more of the characteristics of one of these formations 
and then the other, are often found intermingled for some distance, 
although the characteristics of the mass of the two formations are 
very distinct. It appears to be the prevailing rock, underlying the 
surface of the elevated prairie, over a considerabie portion of the 
north-western part of the State—the streams having in many 
places cut down through it into the strata beneath. The Galena 
Limestone is a rock peculiar to the West, and is a very important 
member of the lower Silurian series. It is important not only 
from its thickness and the extent of country which it covers, and 
the many economical uses made of the rock itself, but from the rich 
minerals it contains. It being peculiarly the lead-bearing rock of 
the North-West, as is indicated by its name. 

The Galena Limestone is a coarse-grained, porous, and sometimes 
friable rock. It has a dull grayish and sometimes yellowish color, 
and, from its porous character, weathers out very rough and irreg- 
ularly. It is everywhere characterized by its peculiar fossil, the 
Sun Flower Coral, the Coscinapora sulcata or recepticalites of Hall. 
In the lower beds of this rock there is a very beautiful species of 


58 


Favosite quite common. Its pentagonal columns, or rather tubes, 
filled with transverse lamina of a pure siliceous material, radiating 
from a point, present a very beautiful appearance, particularly on 
arecent fracture. This coral is often found in large masses where 
it has weathered out of the rock, sometimes entire, but more fre- 
quently broken into fragments. Among the gasteropods found in 
this rock are the Marchisonia, Pleurotomaria, etc. The Orthoceras, 
Crytoceras, Ammonite, and some of the bivalves common to the 
Trenton Limestone, are often found in the lower beds of this rock. 
This limestone is the prevailing rock along the river, from a mile 
above Dixon to near Sterling, where it disappears beneath the 
Hudson River group and the Niagara Limestone. This rock, as 
may be seen by the map, spreads out over a much greater extent 
of country as we go back from the river, on either side. 


HUDSON RIVER GROUP. 


On the immediate banks of the river, along the rapids at Sterling, 
and at the base of the bluffs a mile above town, on the north side 
of the river, may be seen the various rocks, shales, clayey and 
bituminous deposits described by Professor Hall as the Hudson 
River Group. The rapids in Rock River at Sterling seem to have 
been produced by the wearing away of the shales of this forma- 
tion. I have been unable to ascertain what the exact thickness of 
this group may be, but think that it is probably not more than 
twenty-five or thirty feet. On the map accompanying this paper I 
have represented this formation in a narrow belt, surrounding the 
Niagara Limestone, on the east and north side. 

Although the rocks of this formation do not appear at the sur- 
face, except at the rapids and at the bluff above Sterling, I have 
been able to trace them, in the course indicated on the map, by ex- 
amination of the rocks thrown up in the digging of wells. 


NIAGARA LIMESTONE, 


The Niagara Limestone is found on the north side of the river, 
above Sterling, extending through the north-eastern part of White- 
side county. This rock is also a magnesian limestone, and re- 
sembles, in its composition and appearance, the Galena Limestone. 
There is a good opportunity to examine this formation at the quar- 
ries, a mile above Sterling. There it may be seen resting on a 
green compact rock of the Hudson River Group. The lines of 
charts common to this rock are found there in abundance, some- 
times forming layers six inches thick. The characteristic fossil of 
this rock, the Catenapora Escharoides, and a beautiful species of 
Favosite, are common there. I also noticed a species of Marchi- 
sonia and two or three bivalves. The rock from these quarries 
makes an excellent building stone, and is extensively used for that 
purpose. 


MASTODON GIGANTEUS. 


By C. D. Wiper. 


During the last ten years, in varions portions of Illinois, have 
been found the teeth and tusks, and, in some instances, the verte- 
bree, of a huge mammal, called the Mastodon. All the remains, 
thus far discovered, are indicative of the same species, 2. ¢., Gigan- 
teus—so called from its vast size. Many teeth have been found in 
Northern Lllinois, especially in the Lead regions. Some have been 
washed out by the rivers, at Spring flood, while others have been 
obtained in railway sections. 

The “largest specimen” of this order, (Mastodon,) once lived 
near Aurora, where his remains were recently found, in excavating 
for the track of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. There 
were the tusks and seven teeth—all in a good state of preservation, 
“the tooth of time” having consumed ail other vestiges. The 
teeth and tusks were found as near each other as when they were 
in the animal’s head; from which we may conclude that he laid 
him down to die with much composure, and was allowed to sleep 
on quietiy through the ages. 

The tusks, when entire, measured ten feet in length and ten 
inches in diameter at the base; they were curved upward, and 
were considerably worn at the ends, on the under side. They ap- 
pear to have been used as huge levers, for the purpose of overturn- 
ing trees, large and small, whose foliage and branches served him 
for food—a conclusion at which we also arrive from the construc- 
tion of his teeth. 


60 


The foregoing figure represents one of the tusks in the natural po- 
sition. As it was uncovered, one of the laborers, an Irishman, with 
an ax, cut it nearly asunder, thinking it was “ white wood.” It re- 
sembles the tusk of the Elephant, (or Mammoth, which is simply a 
fossil elephant,) whose tusks are fixed to the upper jaw like incisor 
teeth, and have a solid structure. The tusk of the Mastodon has an 
outer shell, one inch in thickness, very hard, fibrous and compact, 
not unlike the massive curved cables stretched over the towers at 
the Niagara suspension bridge. The mass within is white, like de- 
cayed ivory. The weight of each tusk is 200 pounds, and judging 
from its shape, position and material, we are obliged to say that a 
forest of oak or pine would “grow small by degrees” before a 
drove of these formidable tree-eaters. 

The teeth, as one would suppose, are of great size, and weigh 
from five to eight pounds each. The front teeth weigh from three 
to five pounds, and resemble, in their construction, those of grami- 
nivorous animals. They appear to have been worn out, the crown 
or enamel of the teeth having nearly disappeared. 


The above cut represents a “ wisdom tooth” of the Mastodon. It 
weighs seven pounds, and measures eight inches in length and 
breadth, and is about five inches in thickness. The protuberances 
of the surface, from which the name Mastodon is derived, are 
smooth, and seem to have been used for breaking portions of limbs 
of trees, which was done after the manner of an old fogy flax- 
break, the processes shutting into, but not touching each other. 
The pieces or chips thus made, were then masticated by the front 
teeth, which served as molars, an exception to the present mode of 
grinding. However, some contend that the front teeth were used 
only as nippers, for biting off branches or leaves and grass. 

By observing the last figure, which represents one of the smaller 
teeth, the relation of the two sets will be readily perceived, and it 
will also appear that the huge monster was decidedly a vegetarian. 


61 


“The teeth consist chiefly of dentine, invested by enamel, though 
a layer of cement, thinner than in the Elephant, invests the fangs, 
and is spread over the crown. The whole number of teeth is 
twenty-four, of which rarely more than eight are in use at one 
time. They are developed from behind, forward, in order to re- 
lieve the jaws from the excessive weight of the whole at once. 
Two on each side, in each jaw, are developed soon after birth, and 
are shed early. The first and second of the upper jaw resemble 
those of the lower. The thirdisthree-ridged. The fourth is three- 
ridged, larger, with the eminences notched. The fifth has three 
ridges, each with two eminences. The sixth is four-ridged, with a 
small heel; the points sometimes bifurcated, deep furrowed, and 
measuring six and one-fourth by three inches; and in one instance, 
nine and a half to five and a half inches.” 


Several years ago, six Mastodons were exhumed in New Jersey ; 
and, as Cuvier had predicted from a single tooth, they had twenty 
ribs, like the Elephant. Within the ribs of one of the Mastodons, 
a dark colored earth was found, which, on being examined with a 
microscope, exhibited the remains of some vegetable, which Dr. 
Lyell considers to have been the half decayed twigs and leaves of 
the pine or fir tree. The whole mass of vegetable remains taken 
from one carcass was eight bushels, or one stomachtul!!! 

Taking the tusk as one-third of the length, which is the usual es- 
timate, and allowing half the length for the height of the animal, 
we can easily restore the proportions of the Mastodon, and we are 
obliged, therefore, to conclude that when alive and in all his glory, 
he was thirty feet long and fifteen feet high. But this estimate 
need not transcend belief, for we have already, in several museums 
of Natural History, remains of the Megatherium, (great beast,) 
measuring twenty-four feet in length. This was also a grass-eating 
animal. The Zeuglodon, (yoked tooth,) whose remains are in the 
St. Louis Museum, (Wyman’s,) was ninety feet in length. It be- 


62 


longs to an order of reptiles inhabiting the waters of primitive 
oceans, which, ages ago, became “ dry land.” 

At this period the animal kingdom seems to have attained its 
limit. Huge beasts, like the Mastodon, stalked over the plains, 
and great Saurians plowed the waters, like Winans’ steamers. The 
Prairie State was at that time mostly a watery waste, and Lake 
Michigan found its western shore many miles beyond its present 
limits. The northern part of the State was above the sea level, 
and was covered, doubtless, with coniferous trees and tall rush 
grasses. Fox river was tributary to the Gulf of Mexico, (as we have 
since called it,) and the Mastodon, like the ox, grazed along its 
banks. 

It has been thought that this individual, on going from the river 
to the upland, was “swamped” in one of the “sloughs,” and being 
very old could not extricate himself; so he died and his bones are 
with us until this day. Some have even said that the Mastodons 
were once so numerous that they consumed all our forests, leaving 
us the prairies and a few groves—a conclusion which accounts for 
our peculiar topography, and which is entitled tg quite as much 
consideration as a dozen other theories in regard to our prairies. 

For what purposes these creatures were made, “ we do not know, 
for we were not present.” Nor can we see any uses which they 
could serve, except to teach us that, in order to complete the great 
work of Creation, another race must appear possessed of higher 
characteristics, and haying no relation to the greatness of physical 
proportions. 

This animal must not be confounded with the Mammoth, or fos- 
sil Elephant—several species of which have been found in North 
America, in the same formation. The remains of both the Masto- 
don and Mammoth have been found together, at Big-bone Lick, 
Kentucky. Professor Rogers argues that they lived together, in 
the long period of surface tranquility which succeeded the strewing 
of the general drift, and were overtaken and exterminated together 
by the same changes, partly of climate, partly of a second but more 
local displacement of the waters, which reshifted the drift and 
formed the later lake and river terraces. 

We subjoin a few notes taken from Dr. Warren’s Report on the 
Mastodon, the most complete description extant. Dr. Warren had 
an entire skeleton in his museum in Boston. The skeleton of an 
Elephant was placed near the Mastodon, in order to show the con- 
trast of size and similarity of construction. The remains referred 
to, in possession, of Dr. Warren, were found near Newburg, on the 
Hudson river, in a large morass, the huge bones “lay sprawling 
out,” each occupying its natural relation and position. 

The specimen above referred to is very nearly the same size as 
the one found at Aurora, and the measurements are nearly the same 
for each portion of its structure. 

The cranium is flatter than in the Elephant, narrow between the 
temporal bones, the face becoming twice as wide below the nasal 


63 


opening. The length of the superior surface, from the vertex to 
the edge of the pre-maxillary bones, is forty-eight inches, and the 
width between the superior orbiter processes twenty-eight inches ; 
the posterior or occipital surface is nearly vertical, roughened for 
muscular attachments; the temporal bones are of great size, indi- 
cating the power of the muscles which filled them; lower jaw 
V-shaped—the anterior pointed extremity having on the internal 
surface a long wide groove for the tongue. The cervical vertebrae 
have short spinous processes, except the last, which is six and a half 
inches long; the dorsals are twenty, and, with the three lumbar, 
form a considerable arch, the first seven having very long spinous 
processes; the first lumbar measures across the transverse processes 
seventeen inches; the sacrum consists of five bones, and is twenty 
inches long on the lower surface; caudals probably about twenty 
two, very strong at the commencement of the tail, which reached 
to the knees. The ribs are twenty—thirteen true, and seven false ; 
the first nearly vertical, resembling a clavicle, and twenty-eight 
inches long; from this the ribs increase to the ninth, which 1s fifty- 
four and three-quarter inches; thence decreasing to the last, which 
is twenty-one inches. The massive humerus is thirty-nine inches 
long, with equal circumference, with a remarkable projection, ex- 
tending two-thirds down the limb, for the deltoid muscle; the cir- 
cumference of the elbow joint is forty-four inches ; radius is twenty- 
nine inches long; ulna much the stoutest and thirty-four inches 
long. The thigh bone is massive, and about as long as the hume- 
rus, seventeen inches in circumference at the middle, and thirty at 
the lower portion; the kneepan nearly globular; tibia hnman-like, 
twenty-eight inches long, thirty inches in circumference above and 
thirteen and a half in the middle; fibula twenty-six inches; feet 
more depressed and toes more radiating than in the Elephant. 
This skeleton is eleven feet high; seventeen feet from end of 
face to beginning of tail; the latter being six and two-thirds feet; 
circumference around ribs sixteen feet flve inches; tusks about 
eleven feet, of which eight and two-thirds feet project beyond the 
sockets. The size of the head of one specimen, found in Orange 
county, New York, is as follows: breadth, thirty-one inches; height, 
thirty-three and a quarter inches; length, forty-eight inches. — 
An analysis of the tusks shows the following constituents : 


PAN AG TRAV CGD acc ia vs laced ede otgides coh iga: captain) quai a’ sys 26.2 
Phosphate and carbonate of lime,....... a Say! Oia 
‘SY REE PRESS ARE NDR MES RD: OR IAT IE ASE 4.6 

100.0 


About thirty species of the Mastodon have been described, most 
of which are European. Their remains are generally found in 
their natural state, not petrified ; because, as in most cases, they 
have been preserved in morasses and peat swamps, whose antisep- 
tic powers are well known. 


Pt i 4 
64 


The specimens found at Alton, consisting of teeth and jaw bones, 
were preserved in debris of limestone. The teeth were not changed 
in any respect. The bones were somewhat honey-combed by the 
action of lime. } 

The remains found at Aurora were slightly impregnated with 
iron, which is another means of preservation. 

At what time this gigantic creature came upon the earth is a 
point not yet fixed. There are some traditions, faintly showing 
that the earlier races of men were acquainted with him, and that 
they have become extinct within two or three thousand years, or 
within a few centuries, like the Dodo and Dinornis. Lyell consid- 
ers that, although they are geologically recent, their destruction 
occurred many thousand years ago, mainly through climatic 
changes. From the remains found in Europe, it is evident that the 
American Mastodon is much more recent, since it is here found 
cotemporary with the Mammoth, or Elephant, and, in Europe, as 
far down as the middle of the Tertiary formation. 


a ee ee ee ee eS 


THE WATER LILY. (Nelumbium Lutem.) 


To face page 65. 


THE WATER LILY. 


ON THE PECULIAR GROWTH OF THE WATER LILY (NELUMBIUM LU- 


TEUM, Wild.) 


Read before the Ilinois Natural History Society, June, 1860, 


By Freperick Brenpet, of Peoria, Illinois. 


EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 


Fig. 1—The ovary longitudinally divided. 


Fig. 


Fig. 
Fig. 


03 


2—The seed longitudinally divided, showing the primordial leaves (a,) and the 


radicle (6,) one cotyledon (e,) and the bony pericarp. 


3—The young plant produced by the seed. 


4—The flowering plant produced by a bud: a the rootstock, 6 the outer scale 


of the bud; through the base of it passeth the stipule, (d,) and the terminal 
bud of which is to be seen the prolongated stem, (¢.) Through the 
base of the stipule generally passeth another bud, prolongated into a runner ; 
c, the inner scale of the bud, protecting the leaf and the flower bud; 7, the 
leaf—this, measuring sometimes two feet in diameter, and the flower, (g) are, 
in proportion to the rest of the drawing, many times too small. The petiole 
and peduncle are rough, with black tubercles. 


. 6—A cut of the stem. The stem, rhizoma or runner, however we eall it, has an 


internal structure more like the endogenous plants. Cylindrical cavities, 
generally 8 to 9, in the peduncle 6, in the petiole 4, larger ones and many in- 
terstitial smaller ones run side by side along, sometimes interrupted by ten- 
der diaphragmas. These cavities run only from one nod or rootstock to 
the other, the rootstocks being solid. The four larger channels of the pe- 
duncle are continuous, with two larger and two smaller cavities in the base 
of the leaf, indicated on the upper surface by four yellowish-green spots. 
The cavities again continue in smaller channels, which run on both sides of 
the nerves to the periphery of the leaf. 


Fig. 6—The diaphragma magnified, showing a beautiful net-like structure, 


Fig. 7—The diagram as constructed by Trecul: a, the leaves; 4, the axillary stipules 


ce, the extrafoliary stipules; d, the abortive stipule ; e, the abortive leaves. 


by 


att | 


66 


The Water Chinquapin (Welumbcum lutewm, Willd.,) a plant of 
a very peculiar growth, which is common in our Western ponds 
and lakes, belongs to the Nelumbo family, of which Nelumbium is 
the single genus. This plant—and so, probably, the few other con- 
genial species—differs so much in its growth from other dicotyl- 
edonous plants, that Trecul, a French botanist, in a paper read be- 
fore the Academy of Sciences at Paris, said: “The singular or- 
ganization of this plant seems to defy all our systems.” Yet he 
makes some efforts to demonstrate that the leaves and stipules, al- 
though simulating an anomalous disposition, submit to all the laws 
of phyllotaxy. It must be remarked here, that Trecul speaks of 
N. codophyllum, Raf., and that this is doubtless the same as N. 
luteum, Willd., the only species which is known in the Western 
and Southwestern States. 

The fruit of the Nelumbium is a bony nut, half imbedded in 
cavities of a large spongy obconic receptacle, containing a single 
seed, which is suspended on a filiform funicle, rising on one side of 
the nut to the apex. A second ovulum in the ovary is abortive, 
the funicle of which rises on the opposite side, as to be seen in the 
ovary at an early state. (Tig. 1.) 

When the seed is germinating the radicle and the cotyledons do 
not come forth Jike in other seeds, but rest in the nut, which is gen- 
erally laying on the surface of the mud, below the water. The 
primordial leaves are already highly developed in the seed, (Fig. 
2,) bent down on the inside of the petiole, and inclosed in a very 
tender membranous, hood-like sheath. When the stem has left 
the nut, the petioles of the obicular peltate leaves, rolled inward 
from two sides, rise on their prolongated petioles, and, unfolding, 
float on the surface of the water. 

In the axil of the second leaf there is a stipule, which envelops 
the next, and so on to the fourth or fifth leaf, the stipule of which en- 
velops the terminal bud. ‘The first four or five leaves, alternating 
on two opposite sides, are very close together; then the pro- 
longated stem, with the terminal bud, runs into the mud, rooting 
there, and sending up one leaf, which is provided with three mem- 
branaceous protective organs, one axillary right as on the prece- 
ding leaves, and two others, which Trecul calls extrafoliary stipules 
—one behind the leaf, protecting the same, and a second below on the 
opposite side, which envelopsthe whole. The terminal bud passeth 
through the latter, piercing it at the base, and produces at a dis- 
tance a leat on the upperside, and soon. Now, this one-sided dis- 
tribution of the leaves, when the first leaves are bifarious, and the 
number of stipules differing in the young and in the older plant, 
astonished the mind of Mr. Trecul, and endeavoring to solve the 
question he relied on the following teleological argumentation : 

“The two primordial leaves need no protection, except that of 
the cotyledons and a thin hyaline membrane covering both togeth- 
er, like a miter. The following leaves need a protection, and so 
we find one stipule in the axil of the second, third, fourth, and 


67 


sometimes the fifth leaf; the merithalls being very short, one sti- 
pule is sufficient. But afterwards, when the rhizoma descends in- 
to the mud to a depth of twelve to fifteen inches , the merithalls 

grow longer before the terminal leaf has acquired strength enough 
to resist the action of destroying external influences—f. @., fermen- 
tation of organic matters. Now, the axillary stipule, as it covers 
only the lower part of the merithall, is insufficient ; nature pre- 
vented destruction by providing the upper extremity of every in- 
ternode with two supplementary stipules. But nature works ac- 
cording to fixed laws, and there is no harmony between the early 
and the later state of growth—the first four or five leaves are dis- 
tichous ; the following ‘which are provided with three stipules, ap- 
pear only on the upper side of the rhizoma.” ‘To restore accordance 
with these different arrangements, Trecul supposes that the two 
extrafoliary stipules are the axillary stipules of abortive leaves, and 
that a third leaf and its stipule is abortive, and all these organs 
are abortive because nature did not want them. Teleology is gen- 
erally founded upon hypothesis, and should be abolished in natural 
sciences. Cool observation relying upon facts leads on a weary 
but sure way, when hypothesis leads too often astray. Desirous 
to find a convenient explanation, we are induced by the slightest 
probability to believe without sufficient evidence. It seems to me 
that Trecul, to save a system, which in this case is not at all in 
danger, mingled entirely different things. The prolongation of 
the stem from leaf to leaf in the older plant i is not a merithall, but 
a runner with a terminal bud, the origin of a new individual, con- 
sisting of a solid rootstock, and producing one leaf, one flower, and 
new runners, and the so-called extrafoliary stipules are the scales of 
the bud. The distribution of the leaves in the whole concern of 
connected individuals has nothing to do with the laws of phyllo- 
taxis. The arrangement of the leaves in our plant is distichous in 
the individuals produced by the buds, as well as in those produced 
by seeds: that proves the position of the scales of the bud. The 
difference is, that the former produces a fructiferous scape and only 
one leat; the latter produces four or five leaves and no fruit, but 
only a terminal bud, mediating the propagation in a secondary 
form. This reminds slichtly of the alternate generation of some 
invertebrate animals. 

In this way we need not the very ingenious, but too fictitious, 
explanation of Trecul; unexplained is only the want of the stipule 
in the axil of the first leaf. We say, better we do not know the 
reason, than to explain its absence by the hypothesis that nature 
did not want it. 


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TAXIDERMY. 


DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING AND PRESERVING SPECIMENS 
IN ORNITHOLOGY. 


By R. H. Hotprr, Bloomington, Illinois. 


In this paper upon preserving and mounting birds, prepared in 
accordance with a resolution of the Natural History Society, passed 
at its annual meeting in July, 1861, I have endeavored to make 
the process as easily understood as possible, by a plain account of 
my manner of operation, with illustrations of all the important por- 
tions of operator and subject. But with the most elaborate article 
and series of illustrations, it requires much practice and some artis- 
tic taste, to succeed in mounting birds successfully ; though almost 
any one, with a little practice, may prepare specimens for exchange 
or study. 

TOOLS AND MATERIALS. 


Supposing you to possess a suitable gun, your next requisite is 
shot of a proper size for the particular specimens you wish to pro- 
cure, though it is better to be provided with several sizes, say Nos. 
6, 8 and 10, the latter being suitable for Warblers and other small. 
birds; for Humming-birds, sift No. 10 through a common meal 
seive; you can always procure a few charges to each pound, of 
dust shot, with which, by choosing proper distance, you may obtain 
these diminutive creatures with little injury. A basket, such as 
used by fishermen, and called a ** Trout basket,” is best for carrying 
specimens, as you can lay in birds without danger of breaking the 
feathers. 

Instruments necessary for skinning, are, a sharp knife, a pair of 
short-bladed, sharp pointed scissors, (lig. 2,) a large, strong pair, 
(Fig. 1,) a pair of spring forceps, (Fig. 3,) and a pair with long 
blades, (Fig. 4,) a hook for suspending the bird whilst skinning, to 


‘ j 
} 
‘ j 
70 
ow 
be attached to a wire or strong twine, and suspended from the 
wall, a shallow dish or tray to hold plaster of Paris. 

Additional tools, for mounting, are a strong pair of wire cutters, 
two or three sizes of plyers, needles, thread and twine; moss, such 
as found on rocks or old logs-—soft and, green is best for small 
birds—and frost-cured prairie hay, or blue grass, for larger; tow, 
for filling out with,-and cotton for various purposes, though the lat- 
ter is to be avoided in all cases excepting in filling the throat and 


occiput, as hereafter described ; annealed wire of various sizes, and _ 


for a preservative, arsenic, for which there is no substitute; all 

. . ’ ? . my: wee ? 
preparations, intended as such, not being any more efficient, and 
requiring more labor and time to apply. 


HOW TO TREAT A BIRD WHEN SHOT. 


Having wounded a bird, it is necessary that it be killed without 
further injury ; to do this open wide your right hand and carefully 
inclose him in it; then, with the thumb and fore finger of the left 
placed under his wings, press upon his lungs until his struggles 
cease; plug the shot holes and mouth with cotton, and having pre- 
pared a stiff paper cone, drop your bird in, head down, and neatly 
told the end over the tail, and lay in your basket, taking care during 
the whole proceedings to avoid rumpling or breaking the feathers, 
as it will save you much after labor. 


TO CLEAN THE FEATHERS. 


Having brought your specimens home in good order, and laid 
them upon the table, with the tools handy at your right hand, and 


tray of plaster on the left, you pass a strong thread through the 


nostrils, remove the cotton from the mouth and put in fresh; with 
a sponge and clean water, (a little warm is best,) wash all blood 
and dirt from the feathers, then, with a moderately stiff brush, (a 
hat, or soft hair brush is best,) apply the plaster, brushing briskly 
at the same time, until perfectly dry ; by this means specimens 
may be restored, that otherwise would be valueless. 


HOw TO SKIN A BIRD. 


The bird is now ready for your knife, with the edge of which 
separate the feathers on the breast, and you will find a line, bare 
of feathers, as if lett by nature for this operation; with the fingers 
of the left hand keep the feathers back, whilst with the knife you 
cut through the skin, from the lower end of the breast bone to the 
vent, as shown in Fig. 5; sprinkle a little plaster upon the exposed 
surface; now take hold of the skin with the fingers of the left hand, 
whilst you press against the body, with your forceps held in the 
right, as seen in Fig. 6. Having thus loosened the skin upon both 
sides, as low down as you conveniently can, place the thumb and 
foretinger of your right hand upon the skin over the breast, press 
downwards, and you will expose the whole of the breast to the 


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71 


neck; insert the hook, and suspend by cord; now take hold of the 
neck, pull upwards, at the same time forcing your thumb and fore- 
finger under the neck, bringing it clear of the skin sufficiently to 
insert your scissors, when you sever the neck, as seen in Fig. 7. 
Lay hold at the wing, pushing down, at the same time opening a 
place under the wing bone with your fingers, in which place your 
scissors, and cut off at the shoulder, as seen in Fig. 8. Having cut 
off both win gs in this manner, you now car efully separate the ‘skin 
from the back, using great care as you reach the loins, as here it 
adheres so closely. that it is easily torn; now take hold of the leg, 
at the lower joint, with the left hand, and with the thumb and fore- 
finger of the right, on either side of the thigh, press down the skin, 
insert your scissors at the joint, and sever, as shown in Fig. 9, 
Then carefully force down the skin to the base of the tail, and cut 
off; remove the oil sack and flesh adhering; next strip the legs of 
all flesh or fat, then take the wing bone, draw out to the forear m, 
when with your fingers force the skin down sufficiently to expose 
the flesh, and with your knife remove it, 2o¢ separating the shafts 
of the feathers from the bone. In large birds, and especially in 
hawks, geese, etc., the wings can be more easily cleaned from the 
outside, making an incision the whole len eth of the forearm, on the 
underside, separate the skin and remove flesh; the opening need 
not be sewn up. 

Having now reached the neck, take hold with your left hand, 
and with. your right strzp to the skull; here, carefully turning the 
skin, you reach the ears, which seize with your nails and tear out, 
then torce down the skin, leaving bare the eyes, insert the point of 
your spring forceps in the socket, and work around, loosening the 
eye, then lift out and tear loose from the lids; next, with your 
knife, cut loose the tongue and separate the neck at the base of the 
skull ; now, with your scissors, cut down each side of the jaw and 
through into the skull, removing the roof of the mouth and expos- 
ing the brain, which scoop out with your forceps; apply plenty of 
arsenic to all parts of the skin, especially about the head and base 
of tail; then fill the eye sockets with cotton, turn back the head, 
being careful to avoid stretching the skin, adjust the feathers, and 
your bird is ready for mounting, or to be made in form for ex- 
change. 


TO SKIN DUCKS, GEESE AND ORANES. 


There are many birds, such as ducks, geese, cranes, etc., whose 
heads are too large to be drawn through the neck in the ordinary 
manner; with these proceed as in ‘other birds, draw the neck 
through’ as far as possible, cut off, then separate the feathers on the 
throat, and make an incision lar eve enough for the head to pass 
through, then proceed as before directed, sew up the cut with fine 
thread and short stitches, and adjust the feathers. If proper care 
has been taken, the place opening is not perceptible. 


72 

It must be understood that during the whole process of skinning 
there must be a free use of plaster, as fast as new surface of flesh 
and fat is exposed, and very much of your success in making good 
skins depends upon this. In large birds that are very fat or oily, 
you can baste strips of thick brown paper over the edges of the 
skin where you commence. Use corn meal as an absorbant. 


TO MAKE A SKIN FOR EXCHANGE. 


Having the skin off, you wish to prepare it for exchange; first 
pass a thread through the forearms of the wings, and tie close 
enough to bring the wings to their natural position, wrap some cot- 
ton around the leg bones, and the skin is ready for filling, which is 
done after this manner: suppose your specimen to be a quail; you 
take a round stick, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, and 
rather longer than the body and outstretched legs; take some tow 
or cotton, (the former is best,) and wrap around the stick, forming 
the neck the natural length and size, and the body as near the origi- 
nal shape and size as possible, having it rather smaller in_prefer- 
ence to being larger; insert this in the body, the neck end of the 
stick entering the cavity of the skull; take two or three stitches, 
just sufficient to hold the skin together, cross the legs over the 
stick and tie; pass alittle cotton in the mouth to fill out the throat; 
tie the bill, place the head in a position as seen in Fig. 10, cut a 


narrow strip of paper and pin around the body, and lay away to 


dry. 
DIRECTIONS FOR MOUNTING—TO PREPARE WIRE, ETC. 


Having the skin made, you wish to mount it; select your wire, 
having it large enough to support the bird rather firmly, but not 
too large, or you will be unable to pass it up the legs without risk 
of injury. Cut off a piece about four times the length of the spe- 
cimen, twist one end around a nail driven firmly into the wall; 
seize the other end with your plyers and pull until you stretch it 
slightly ; this will straighten it better than any other method. Cut 
into three pieces, making your cut obliquely, which gives you some- 


. o . c=) . . . 
thing of a point, and in most birds needs no further sharpening. 


TO MAKE THE BODY. 


Take some hay, or moss, and wrap it well with thread, forming 
it with your fingures at the same time, as near the size and shape 
of the natural body as possible, preferring that it should be rather 
less than larger; cut off your winding thread quite long, and with 
it arma needle, and sew through the back, at @ @ ain Fig. 11, 
which will make a sharp offset, giving room for the bone of the 
wing to lie in; run a wire through the body at the back, and with 
your forceps turn the end in so as to fasten; wind some cotton 
smoothly around the wire, for a distance slightly exceeding the 
natural neck, but not any larger. See Fig. 11. 


ee 


Nee ae mee eS 


Fie. 13. 


Vik 
ena 


Fie. 15. 


73 


Let me impress upon the beginner these facts: you cannot take 
too much pains in forming the body, to get it the right size and 
shape; and that if you make it but a trifle too large you may as 
well throw the bird away, for you cannot make it a good specimen. 


WHERE AND HOW TO PUT IN. THE WIRES. 


Take a wire and thrust it through the foot at the heel, passing 
up as close to the bone as possible through the feathered portion, 
turn back the skin, pass the wire up until a little past the end of 
the bone, wrap around both bone and wire cotton enough to fill 
out the thigh nearly as large as natural, draw back and proceed 
with the other in same manner. 

Lay the bird upon its back, adjust the feathers, straighten the 
neck, take the artificial body in the right hand, and pass the wire 
of the neck up until it enters the skull; place the fingers of the left 
hand upon the head over where you expect the wire to come 
through, (which should be the center of the skull;) work the body 
slightly so as to drdl through, press it forward until in its place; 
now take hold of the leg and enter the wire a little forward of the 
center of the body, pass it through and turning the ends in to fas- 
ten, as shown in I'ig. 12—B B showing the place of entering, and 
ee where they protrude and fasten. 


TO SEW UP. 


Bring the legs together a little and see if the body looks full and 
round at the sides; if not, fill out with chopped tow, being careful 
not to fill too much, so as to stretch the skin; take a worsted or 
‘slender darning needle, armed with strong cotton, and commence at 
the anus and sew up; a stitch every inch is close enough until you 
reach near the breast, when half that distance wiJl be right; in 
cutting off your thread leave it two or three inches long, to be cut 
shorter after the bird is dry. ; 


TO GET THE WINGS INTO PLACE. 


Punch holes on your block, press through the lee wires and fas- 
ten underneath; clasp the body with your hand and bring it to some- 
where near the position you wish; next place your thumb under 
the wing, and fingers over, seizing the arm bone of the wing, lift 
it up and tuck into the place made in the body to receive it; pull 
the feathers from under, at the same time forward and over the 
bend of the wing; pass a sharpened wire or long pin through and 
into the body; proceed with the other in the same manner; now 
take hold of the bill with the left hand, with the right firmly 
hold the body, push back with the left, until you bring it upright, 
and near its natural position. 

The beginner will find more difficulty in getting the wings pro- 
perly in place than any other part of tle operation, and unless 
right, it is impossible to make a bird look well. In lifting the 


—8 


74 


wing into place, be sure to get it high enough up, but not so high 
as to raise the scapulars, but so that they will lie smoothly over the 
fore arm; also see that the wings are neither thrown too far for- 
ward or back ; and the best directions I can give here is, to study 
your specimen before you commence ; see how far from end of tail 
the wings fold, and the same of the outstretched feet; make your- 
self familiar with the bird in every respect when in the woods, 
with its habits, and on your table, with its relative proportions, 
and you will be less likely to caricature nature, as seen in most ot 
our public collections. 


TO FILL OUT THROAT AND BREAST. 


Your bird is now, as shown in Fig. 13, with the throat and 
breast at E E FE, not filled out sufficiently to the point marked F ; 
take a wire and drag off a little cotton and pass through the month, 
continuing until you have given sufficient fulness, at the same time 
smoothing with your fingers and giving the rounded outlines of 
throat and breast. 


HOW TO WRAP A BIRD. 


Having already thrust one pin in the body through the wings, 
now enter one just below, about the middle of the body, one back 
of the leg, and one at the shoulder, as shown on Fig. 12; now wind 
some thread from one to the other until you have secured the 
wings firmly in their place, and bound down any feathers not dis- 
posed to be smooth; use plenty of thread, as with this you can do 
much towards making your bird smooth and symmetrical. 


TO SPREAD THE TAIL. 


Take two narrow strips of card board and pass a wire through 
both ends of them, and bend together; with this clamp the tail, 
spread the feathers smoothly, twist the ends together, give it a lit- 
tle roundness, pass a wire between the clamps, through into the 
body, and set tail in position desired, as shown in Fig. 14. 


TO MOUNT IN FLYING POSITION. 


To set up a bird in flying position, you first put the head in po- 
sition, throwing it wp more than in a resting position; place the 
bone of wing as betore described ; raise up the wing a little above 
horizontal, run a pin down the fore arm into the body ; now fill out 
the throat and breast, take a long pin or wire, and raising up the 
wing insert the pin deneath and another immediately over ; stretch 
it out, see that every feather is in place, then twist the wires to- 
gether, bend so as to give the natural concavity of the wings; 
spread the tail, bending it up as shown in Fig. 15. 


FURTHER DIRECTIONS FOR MOUNTING CRANES, GEESE, ETC. 


In mounting cranes, geese, and all long necked birds, proceed 
as before described, except that you fill out the breast with chopped 


75 


tow to its full roundness before sewing up, as you cannot introduce 
the cotton as directed for small birds; the throat is filled out as in 
others. With all large birds, in removing a piece of the skull for 
extracting the brain, and the flesh adhering, it necessarily destroys 
the symmetry of the head. to remedy which, introduce some cotton 
through the eye between the skin and skull, sufficient to restore its 
natural feathers. 


VARNISH THE LEGS. 


It isa good plan to give the legs a light coat of varnish, as it 
prevents their scaling, and protects them from insects. 


TO PREPARE DRIED SKINS FOR MOUNTING. 


Take a box large enough to receive the skins, and fill half full 
with clean fine sand thoroughly moistened but not wet; lay in 
your skins, and spread over a damp cloth, set away for twenty-four 
hours, when they will be soft enough to remove the filling ; then 
fill every portion with cotton well saturated with water; if a long 
legged bird, also wrap the legs with wet cotton; set away for 
twenty-four hours, when, change the wet filling, dampen the coy- 
ering cloth and set away again; on the third day they will ordina- 
rily be ready for use; though quite small birds will take a little 
less and large a little more time. When ready to mount, remove 
the filling, and fill with cotton wet in /o¢ water, and let it remain 
an hour before mounting. 


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BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 


CATALOGUE. 


By R. H. Horner, of Bloomington, linois. 


In the department of Ornithology, I have to report the collec- 
tion of over two hundred specimens, comprising one hundred and 
fifty-two species, which are mounted, named, and ready to deposit 
in the museum of the Society. Nearly all the families in Orni- 
thology found in this State, are represented, and one or two are 
nearly complete in genera and species. It is hoped that with the 
assistance of A. M. Gow, of Dixon, and Dr. Velie, of Rock Island, 
now associated with this commission, and by a system of exchanges 
begun this summer, that this department may keep pace with 
others of the Society. 

With this report I offer a list of the Birds of Illinois, as com- 
plete as present information can make it, and arranged according 
to the classification adopted by Prof. Baird, in the ninth volume 
of Pacific railroad reports, only differing by grouping the genera 
into families, instead of the minute subdivisions given in that work. 
I must also acknowledge my indebtedness to the catalogues of 
Messrs. R. Kennicott and Henry Pratten, who left but few to add 
to the enumeration of species, making my labor one of classifica- 
tion, rather than collection. With the few species not enumerated 
in former lists, and added in this, the whole number of species 


found in this State is two hundred and forty-eight; but I have no °° 


doubt that a thorough exploration will greatly increase the num- 
ber; I would recommend that catalogues of birds, from every sec- 
tion of the State, be requested of such persons as may be willing 
to devote so much time to the furtherance of Natural History. 
Southern Illinois and our large rivers afford peculiar facilities, and 
specimens and lists of birds from those sections will prove most 
acceptable. 


78 


Nothing, so far, has been done towards collecting eggs and nests. 
Would it not be advisable to make and fill a commission on 


Oology. 


ORDER RAPATORES. 
FAMILY VULTURIDA. 


Cathartes Aura. Turkey Buzzard. 


FAMILY FALCONIDA. 


Falco Columbarius. Pigeon Hawk. 

Falco Sparverius. Sparrow Hawk. 
Accipiter Cooperii. Cooper’s Hawk. 
Accipiter Fuscus. Sharp-shinned Hawk. 
Buteo Borealis. Red-tailed Hawk. 

Buteo Lineatus. Red-shouldered Hawk. 
Archibuteo Lagopus. Rough-legged Hawk. 
Archibuteo Sanctijohannis. Black Hawk. 
Nauclerus Furcatus. Swallow-tailed Hawk. 
Ictinia Mississippiensis. Mississippi Kite. 
Circus Hudsonius. Marsh Hawk. 

Aguila Canadensis. Golden Eagle. 
Haliactus Leucocephalus. Bald Eagle. 
Pandion Carolinensis. Fish Hawk. 


FAMILY STRINGINA. 


Strix Pratincola. Barn Owl. 

Bubo Virginianus. Great Horned Owl. 
Scops Asio. Mottled Owl. 

Otus Wilsonianus. Long-eared Owl. 
Brachyotus Cassini. Short-eared Owl. 
Syrnium Cinereum. Great Grey Owl. 
Syrnium Nebulosum. Barred Owl. 
Nyctale Acadica. Saw-whet Owl. 
Nyctea Nivea. Snowy Owl. 

Surnia Ulula. Hawk Owl. 


ORDER SCANSORES. 
FAMILY PSITTACIDA. 
Conurus Carolinensis. Carolina Parrot. 
y FAMILY CUCULID®. 


Coccygus Americanus. Yellow-billed Cuckoo. 
Coccygus Erythrophthalmus. Black-billed Cuckoo. 


79 


FAMILY PICID£. 
Campephilus Principalis. Ivory-billed Woodpecker. 
Picus Villosus. Hairy Woodpecker. 
Pieus Pubescens. Downy Woodpecker. 
Sphyrapicus Varius. Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. 
Hylatomus Pileatus. Pileated Woodpecker. 
Centurus Carolinus. Red-bellied Woodpecker. 
Melanerpes Erythrocephalus. Red-headed Woodpecker 
Colaptes Auratus. Golden-winged Woodpecker. 


ORDER INSESSORES. 


FAMILY TROCHILID2. 
Trochilus Colubris. tuby-throated Humming-bird. 
FAMILY OYPSELIDA. 
Cheetura Pelasgia. Chimney Swallow. 
FAMILY CAPRIMULGIDS. 


Antrostomus Vociferus. Whippoorwill. 
Chordeiles Popetue Night Hawk. 


FAMILY ALCEDINIDE. 
Ceryle Alcyon. Belted Kingfisher. 
FAMILY TYRANNINE. 


Tyrannus Carolinensis. King-bird. 
Myiarchus Crinitus. Great Crested Flycatcher. 
Sayornis Fuscus. Pewee. 

Contopus Virens. Wood Pewee. 

Empidonax Acadicus. Crested Flycatcher. 


FAMILY TURDID&, 


Turdus Mustelinus. Wood Thrush. 
Turdus Pallasii. Hermit Thrush. 
Turdus Fuscescens. Wilson’s Thrush. 
go Turdus Alice. Grey-cheeked Thrush. v 

Turdus Migratorius. Robin. 

Sialia Sialis. Blue-bird. 

tegulus Calendula. Ruby-crowned Wren. 
tegulus Satrapa. Golden-crowned Wren. 


FAMILY SYLVICOLID2. 
Anthus Ludovicianus. Tit Lark. 
Mniotilta Varia. Black and White Creeper. 
Parula Americana. Blue Yellow-backed Warbler. 
Protonotaria Citrea. Prothonotary Warbler. 


80 


Geothlypis Trichas. Maryland Yellowthroat. 
Geothlypis Philadelphia. Mourning Warbler. 
Oporornis Agilis. Connecticut Warbler. 
Oporornis Formosus. Kentucky Warbler. 
Icteria Viridis. -Yellow-breasted Chat. 
Helmitherus Vermivorus. Worm-eating Warbler. 
Helminthophaga Pinus. Blue-winged Yellow Warbler. 
Helminthophaga Chrysoptera. Golden-winged Warbler. 
Helminthophaga Ruficapilla. Nashville Warbler. 
Helminthophaga Celata. Orange-crowned Warbler. 
Helminthophaga Peregrina. ‘Tennessee Warbler. 
Seiurus Aurocapillus. Golden-crowned Thrush. 
Seiurus Noveboracensis. Water Thrush. 
Dendroica Virens. Black-throated Green Warbler. 
Dendroica Canadensis. Black-throated Blue Warbler. 
Dendroica Coronata. Yellow-rump Warbler. 
Dendroica Blackburniz. Blackburnian Warbler. 
Dendroica Castanea. Bay-breasted Warbler. 
Dendroica Pinus. Pinecreeping Warbler. 
Dendroica Pennsylvanica. Chestnut-sided Warbler. 

\Dendroica Cxrulo. Blue Warbler. 

Dendroica Striata. Black-poll Warbler. 

Dendroica Aestiva. Yellow Warbler. 

Dendroica Maculosa. Black and Yellow Warbler. 

Dendroica Palmarum. Yellow Red-poll Warbler. 

Dendroica Superciliosa. Yellow-throated Warbler. 

Dendroica Discolor. Prairie Warbler. 

Myiodioctes Mitratus. Hooded Warbler. 

Myiodioctes Pusillus. 

Myiodioctes Canadensis. Canada Flycatcher. 

Setophaga Ruticilla. American Redstart. 

Pyranga Rubra. Scarlet Tanager. 

Pyranga Aestiva. Summer Red-bird. 


: 
- 


FAMILY HIRUNDINIDZ. 


Hirundo Horreorum. Barn Swallow. 
Hirundo Lunifrons. Cliff Swallow. 
Hirundo Bicolor. White-bellied Swallow. 
Cotyle Riparia. Bank Swallow. 

Progne Purpurea. Purple Martin. 


FAMILY BOMBYCILLIDE. 
Ampelis Garrulus. Bohemian Waxwing. 
Ampelis Cedrorum. Cedar-bird. 
FAMILY LANIIDA, 


Collyrio Borealis. Butcher-bird. 
yo -Collyrio Ludovicianus. Loggerhead Shrike. 


81 


Collyrio Excubitoroi¢es. White-rumped Shrike. 
Vireo Olivaceous. Red-eyed Flycatcher. 

Vireo Philadelphicus. 

Vireo Gilvus. Warbling Flycatcher. 

Vireo Noveboracensis. White-eyed Flycatcher. 
Vireo Solitarius. Blue-headed Flycatcher. 

Vireo Flavitrons. Yellow-throated Flycatcher. 


FAMILY LIOTRICHIDA. 


Mimus Polyglottus. Mocking-bird. 

Mimus Carolinensis. Cat-bird. 

Harporhynchus Rufus. Brown Thrush. 
Thrirothorus Ludovicianus. Great Carolina Wren. 
Cistothorus Stellaris. Short-billed Marsh Wren. 
Troglodytes Aedon. House Wren. 

Troglodytes Hyemalis. Winter Wren. 


FAMILY CERTHIADZ. 


Certhia Americana. Brown Creeper. 
Sitta Carolinensis. White-bellied Nuthatch. 
Sitta Canadensis. Red-bellied Nuthatch. 


FAMILY PARIDE. 


Polioptila Ceerulea. Blue-gray Flycatcher. 
Lophophanes Bicolor. Tufted Titmouse. 
Parus Atricapillus. Black-cap Titmouse. 


FAMILY ALAUDIDA, 


Eremophilia Cornuta. Shore Lark. 


FAMILY FRINGILLIDE. 


Hesperiphona Vespertina. Evening Grosbeak. 
Pinicola Canadensis. Pine Grosbeak. 

Carpodacus Purpureus. Purple Finch. 
Chrysomitris Tristis. Yellow-bird. 

Chrysomitris Pinus. Pine Finch. 

Aegiothus Linaria. Lesser Red Poll. 
Plectrophanes Nivalis. Snow Bunting. 
Plectrophanes Lapponicus. Lapland Longspur. 
Plectrophanes Pictus. Smith’s Bunting. 
Passerculus Savanna. Savannah Sparrow. 
Pooecetes Gramineus. Bay-winged Bunting. 
Corturniculus Passerinus. Yellow-winged Sparrow. 
Chondestes Gammaca. Lark Finch. 

Zonotrichia Leucophrys. White-crowned Sparrow. 
Zonotrichia Albicollis. White-throated Sparrow. 
Junco Hyemalis. Snow-bird. 

Spizella Monticola. Tree Sparrow. 


a8 


82 


Spizella Socislis, Chipping Sparrow. 

Spizella Pusilla. Field Sparrow. 

Spizella Pallida. Clay-colored Bunting. 
elospiza Melodia. Song Sparrow. 

Melospiza Palustris. Swamp Sparrow. 

Passerella Iliaca. Fox-colored Sparrow. 

Euspiza Americana. Black-throated Bunting. 

Guiraca Ludoviciana. tose-breasted Grosbeak. 

Cyanospiza Cyanea. Indigo-bird. 

Cardinalis Virginianus. Cardinal Red-bird. 

Pipilo Erythrophthalmus. Cheewink. 


FAMILY ICTERIDA. 


Dolichonyx Oryzivorus. Bobo’link. 

Molothrus Pecoris. Cow-bird. 

Aegelaius Pheeniceus. IRed-winged Black-bird. 
Zanthocephalus Icterocephalus. Yellow-headed Black-bird. 
Sturnella Magna. Meadow Lark. 

Icterus Spurius. Orchard Oriole. 

Icterus Baltimore. Golden Oriole. 

Scolecophagus Ferrugineus. Jtusty Grakle. 

Quiscalus Versicolor. Purple Grakle. 


FAMILY CORVIDA. 


Corvus Carnivorus. American Raven. 
Corvus Americanus. Common Crow. 
Pica Hudsonica. Magpie. 

Cyanurus Cristatus. Blue Jay. 


ORDER RASORES. 


FAMILY COLUMBID. 

Ectopistes Migratoria. Wild Pigeon. 

Zenaidura Carolinensis. Common Dove. 
FAMILY PHASIANID. 


Meleagris Gallopavo. Wild Turkey. 


FAMILY TETRAONID. 


Pedioceetes Phasianellus. Sharp-tailed Grouse. 
Cupidonia Cupido. Prairie Hen. 

Bonasa Umbellus. MRuffed Grouse. 

Lagopus Albus. Willow Grouse. 


FAMILY PERDICID, 


Ortyx Virginianus. Quail. 


83 


ORDER GRALLATORES. 


FAMILY GRUIDZ. 


Grus Americanus. Whooping Crane. 
Grus Canadensis. Sand-hill Crane. 


FAMILY ARDEIDA. 


Garzetta Candidissima. Snowy Heron. 
Herodias Egretta. White Heron. 
Ardea Herodias. Great Blue Heron. 
Ardetta Exilis. Least Bittern. 
Botaurus Lentiginosus. Bittern. 
Butorides Virescens. Green Heron. 
Nyctiardea Gardeni. Night Heron. 


FAMILY TANTALIDA. 


Tantalus Loculator.. Wood Ibis. 
Ibis Ordii. Glossy Ibis. 


FAMILY CHARADRIDA. 


Charadrius Virginicus. Golden Plover. 
Aegialitis Vociterus. Killdeer Plover. 
Aegialitis Semipalmatus. King Plover. 
Strepsilas Interpres. Turnstone. 
Squatarola Helvetica. Black-bellied Plover. 


FAMILY PHALAROPODID#. 


Phalaropus Wilsonii. Wilson’s Phalarope. 
Phalaropus Fulicarius. Red Phalarope. 


FAMILY SCOLOPACID%. 


Philohela Minor. Woodcock. 

Gallinago Wilsonii. English Snipe. 

Macrorhamphus Griseus. Red-breasted Snipe. 

Tringa Maculata. Jack Snipe. 

Tringa Wilsonii. Least Sandpiper. 

Ereunetes Petrificatus. Semipalmated Sandpiper. 

Symphemia Semipalmata. Willet. 

Gambetta Melanoleuca. Telltale Snipe. 

Gambetta Flavipes. Yellow Legs. 

Rhyacophilus Solitarius. Solitary Sandpiper. 

Tringoides Macularius. Spotted Sandpiper. 
2°° Actiturus Bartramius. Bartram’s Sandpiper. 

Limosa Fedoa. Marbled Godwit. 

Numenius Longirostris. Long-billed Curlew. 


84 


Numenius Hudsonicus. Short-billed Curlew. 
Rallus Crepitans. Clapper Rail. 

Rallus Virginianus. Virginia Rail. 

Porzana Carolina. Sora Rail. 

Porzana Noveboracensis. Yellow Rail. 
Fulica Americana. Coot. 

Gallinula Galeata. Florida Gallinule. 


ORDER NATATORES. 


FAMILY CYGNINZ. 


Cygnus Americanus. American Swan. 
Cygnus Buccinator. Trumpeter Swan. 


FAMILY ANSERINAE. 


Anser Hyperboreus. Snow Goose. 
Anser Gambellii. White-fronted Goose. 
Bernicla Canadensis. Canada Goose. 
Bernicla Hutchinsii. Hutchin’s Goose. 
Bernicla Brenta. Brant. 


FAMILY ANATINA. 


Anas Boschas. Mallard. 

Anas Obscura. Black Duck. 

Dafila Acuta. Pintail Duck. 

Nettion Carolinensis. Green-winged Teal. 
Querquedula Discors. Blue-winged Teal. 
Spatula Clypeata. Shoveller. 
Chaulelasmus Streperus. Gadwall. 
Mareca Americana. American Widgeon. 
Aix Sponsa. Summer Duck. 

Fulix Marila. Scaup Duck. 

Fulix Collaris. Ring-necked Duck. 

Aythya Americana. Red-head Duck. 
Aythya Vallisneria. Canvass-back Duck. 
Bucephla Americana. Golden-eyed Duck. 
Bucephla Albeola. Butter Ball. 

Harelda Glacialis. Long-tailed Duck. 
Mergus Americanus. Goosander. 

Mergus Serrator. Red-breasted Merganser. 
Lophodytes Cucculatus. Hooded Merganser. 


FAMILY LARID. 


Larus Argentatus. Herring Gull. 
Croicocephalus Philadelphia. Bonaparte’s Gull. 


85 


FAMILY STERNINA. 


Sterna Regia. Royal Tern. 

Sterna Wilsonii. Wilson’s Tern. 

Sterna Frenata. Least Tern. 

Hydrochelidon Plumbea. Short-tailed Tern. 


FAMILY PELECANID. 
Pelecanus Erythrorhynchus. Rough-billed Pelican. 


FAMILY PHALACROCORACID#. 
Graculus Carbo. Cormorant. 
Graculus Dilophus. Double-crested Cormorant. 


FAMILY PLOTID#. 


Plotus Anhinga. Water Turkey. 


FAMILY COLYMBIDA. 


Colymbus Torquatus. The Loon. 
Colymbus Septentrionalis. Red-throated Diver. 
Podiceps Cristatus. Crested Grebe. 
Podiceps Cornutus. Horned Grebe. 
ise Podilymbus Podiceps. Pied-bili Grebe. 


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NATURAL HISTORY IN SCHOOLS. 


Read before the Illinois State Teachers’ Association, at Quincy, Dec. 25,189 ' 


By A. M. Gow, of Dixon, Illinois. 


Mr. President and Lellow-Teachers : 

It not unfrequently happens that the presentation of a claim 
upon the attention of educators for any particular branch of sci- 
euce is accompanied by the demand that it shall be introduced, at 
once, into our schools as a subject of general school training. Each 
enthusiast in any department of knowledge, feeling the exhilara- 
ting influence of his study upon his own mind, may be somewhat 
excusable when he presents aclaim upon the attention of those en- 
gaged in the work of forming the popular mind, and insists that 
his darling pursuit may be made prominent in their systems of in- 
struction. It is difficult sometimes, in the multiplicity of the sub- 
jects of science, to determine which shall be deemed most worthy 
of a place in the necessarily limited course of study in a large por- 
tion of the schools, and to arrange the branches selected in that or- 
der which will best serve the purposes of a real education. The 
essentially material teacher is best pleased with those studies which 
point ultimately to practical employment and the acquisition of 
wealth, while he of more refined taste seeks those which have for 
their object the cultivation of the nobler parts of our nature. The 
happy mean in the process of education lies between these ex- 
tremes, and he is most fortunate who can properly discriminate be- 
tween that which may be made immediately and practically pro- 
ductive, and that which develops the mind by quickening the per- 
ceptions, strengthening the power of reason, stimulating the moral 
faculties, by proper culture, and giving to the judgment that force 
which the well educated alone possess. temarks Horace Mann, 
in his admirable lectures: “I hardly need to say that by the word 
education | mean much more than ability to read, write and keep 
common accounts; I comprehend under this noble word such a 


$8 


training of the body as shall build it up with robustness and vigor— 
at once , protecting it from disease and enabling it to act, formative- 
ly, upon the crude substances of nature—to turn a wilderness into 
cultivated fields, forests into ships, or quarries and clay pits into 
villages and cities: ; I mean, also to include such a cultivation of the 
intellect as shall enable it to discover those permanent and mighty 
laws which pervade all parts of the created universe, whether ma- 
terial or spiritual. This is necessary, because, if we act in obe- 
aience to these laws, all the resistless forces of Nature become our 
auxiliaries and cheer us on to certain prosperity and triumph; but 
if we act in contravention or defiance of these laws, then Nature re- 
sists, thwarts, battles us, and in the end, it is just as certain that she 
will overwhelm us with ruin as itis that God is stronger than man. 
And, finally, I mean such a culture of our moral affections and re- 
ligious susceptibilities as, in the course of Nature and Providence, 
shall lead to a subjection or conformity of all our appetites, propen- 
sities and sentiments to the will of Heaven.” 

We accept the definition of Education given us by th:s one of its 
most devoted friends and promoters, and in presenting the claims 
of Natural History, we do not wish to be considered as intruding 
our hobby on your attention or as desiring to ride it to the disad- 
vantage of any other of the branches of science. Nor need the 
timid tear that we would add another text book or series to those 
already in our schools, or make any demand upon teachers they 
are not fully capable of meeting. 

The perceptive powers of children are kept in constant exercise 
by their innate desire to learn. Every sense is alert to seize upon 
surrounding objects. Nothing escapes their attention, and each 
new object of observation serves as a stimulant to further inquiry 
and acquirement. Nature teaches wonderfully, and the elements 
for instruction are all around and about us, needing only to be ap- 
propriated and enjoyed, Children, actuated only by this craving 
curiosity, are constantly acquiring facts for future use. Ask a 
mother how it is that her child learns so much during the first few 
years of its existence, and she may reply that she has been its only 
teacher ; but some reflection may convince her that she had little to 
do directly, in imparting the instruction it has received. Her 
teachings, for the greater part, were not intended as instruction, 
but the child did not the less acquire knowledge from her by every 
act and word. All his faculties were keenly alive to what was 
passing around. The mother, for the most part, was no more the 
intentional instructor than the chairs, the table, or the cat upon the 
hearth. 

By observing the operations of nature, we may ascertain that the 
true development of children is hastened by simply furnishing the 
objects for the exercise of their continually expanding powers. 
The normal system of instruction claims to be the natural system, 
since the effort is made to imitate nature, in presenting natural ob- 
jects to the minds of children, thereby stimulating the desire to 


89 


learn, quickening the perceptions, cultivating habits of observation, 
of comparing and classifying, and thereby of re asoning well and 
judging accurately. 

“A child must not only be exercised into correctness of obser- 
vation, comparison and judgment,” says Mr. Mann, “but into ac- 
curacy in the narration or description of what he has seen, heard, 
thought or felt, so that whatever thoughts, emotions, memories are 
within him, he can present them all to others in exact and lumin- 
ous words.” Clearness of conception and aceuracy in description 
are essentially important in correct education, as he is only half 
trained who sees imperfectly or describes inaccurately. 

An anecdote is related of the poet Coleridge, illustrating the 
value of a knowledge of common things. On one occasion, tr ravel- 
ing with a brother poet, he arrived at a country inn. Stopping to 
dine, they entered the house, while the host busied himself in ta- 
king care of the horse. Betore the guests were ready to depart, 
the host was obliged to go to the field to his labor. ‘When they 
concluded to go, “they repaired to the stable, and commenced the 
operation of hari nessing the horse, when an embarra ssing dilemma 
was presented in the difticulty of adjusting the collar to their horse’s 
neck. They examined the collar and they scrutinized the animal’s 
head, but, with all their observation, the difficulty of accommodating 
the one to the other seemed insurmountable. After much consultation 
and many unsuccessful efforts, made both to the discomfort of the 
poor animal and themselves, they’ were forced to ask advice from 
the servant-maid, who was enjoying their ignorance and confusion. 
She willingly responded, and taking the collar, broad end up, slip- 
ped it easily over the animal’s cyes, turned it narrow end upon the 
neck, and fitted it to the shonldéas, much to their surprise and re- 
lief., ‘the moral of our story is, that a knowledge of common 
things is not to be despised, and that, other things being equal, he 
is the best educated who has made the most use of his. powers in 
the acquisition of the facts and principles involved in every-day 
life. 

Children ‘“thave an innate love for whatever is beautiful. Por- 
tions of the external world have been exquisitely adapted to this 
inborn love of the beautiful, by Him who has so clothed the lilies 
of the field that they outshine Solomon in all his glory.” Happy 
- is that child who is free to roam ‘in unrestrained and unconvention- 
al liberty, to enjoy what nature so liberally and so freely bestows. 
Happy is that man whose early desires have not been repressed, 
but have been permitted to strengthen to the improvement of his 
tastes and the cultivation of his fancy. 

Taking the definition of education as given by Mr. Mann to be 
correct, and the principles of instruction “we have alluded to as ju- 
dicious and safe, it may be assumed that there is no better subject 
for training the intellect, developing the bodily powers, and 
awakening the moral faculties, than that contained in the several 
divisions of Natural History, embracing Zoology, botany and Ge- 


asi 
10 \ 


90 


ology. And not only are these studies highly important, consider- 
ed merely as subjects of educational discipline, but they are highly 
useful, in that purely practical and American Sense which estimates 
worth by pecuniary value. The Normal system of instruction is 
not only fitted for the development of little children, but for those 
of mature age. If a child is surrounded by objects of interest and 
beauty, and is permitted to learn by the excitement of his curiosity 
and by a proper direction of his powers, his intellect must expand 
in proportion as his mind is awakened by desire. Such objects are 
all around usin bounteous profusion. Neglect, however, these means 
of natural development, and you may reduce and restrain the love 
of the beautiful and the desire of acquisition, until the child, like 
a Chinese oak, possessing a resemblance to the original design of 
Nature, becomes, by peculiar and unnatural cultivation—a dwarf. 
We remember a little incident. A short tinie since two individu- 
als were walking over the prairie, when one observed astone. See- 
ing something peculiar in it, he stooped to pick it up, and found, to 
his surprise, a beautiful fossil coral. Turning to his companion, 
he exhibited the curiosity, who, without appearing to notice or 
care for its singularity, remarked, with indifference, “pshaw ! it’s 
nothing but a stun.” “Stuns” were a subject of supreme contempt 
to one whose whole being was sacrificed to the false idea of utility. 
It is a most desirable object to train minds to habits of observa- 
tion, so that when any new subject is presented to the eye, or any 
unusual sound strikes upon the ear, it may make-a durable im- 
pression. Some of the most valuable discoveries, affecting hu- 
man health, happiness and convenience, were simply the result of 
an observation of simple and apparently unimportant circumstan- 
ces, stimulating thought, producing reflection and in the end accom- 
plishing the desired object. “Natural History,” says Ruschenber- 
ger, “embraces every object in nature, organic and inorganic. The 
animal kingdom contains about two hundred and fifty thousand 
species, and the vegetable kingdom about eighty-five thousand spe- 
cies, making an aggregate of three hundred and thirty-five thou- 
sand organized objects for the study of the Naturalist. Besides 
these, rocks and minerals of every kind are to be added, which 
would probably swell the number to nearly four hundred thon- 
sand.” The object of Natural History is to classify, systematize 
and study these creations, to discover their uses in the economy of 
nature, their relations to each other, and the value which they hold 
to the comfort and well-being of mankind. Here then is a grand 
field for the student, much of which is comparatively new and un- 
explored, all opening to him the finest opportunities for the culti- 
vation and development of his intellectual powers. — But it is not 
supposed that our people generally, educated in our ordinary 
schools, will or can become Naturalists, any more than they can 
be called Mathematicians because they study Algebra. To be a_ 
Naturalist requires the time and study of a life devoted with unre- 
mitting zeal and unflagging energy ; but to be acquainted with the 


91 


general principles of classification, to be able to read intelligently, 
and to hear with pleasure and profit when subjects of this kind are 
introduced, is certainly desirable to any well educated man or wo- 
man. The wisest of men entreated God that he should be gifted 
with prudence and understanding to govern his people. In addi- 
tion to this, the subject of his petition, God granted him all that 
the most ambitious could desire, so that he became a Poet, a Phi- 
losopher and a Naturalist. ‘“He spake three thousand proverbs, 
and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees, 
from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that 
springeth out of the wall; he spake also of beasts, also of fowl, and 
of creeping things and of fishes.” These were subjects worthy of the 
wisdom of Sulomon, and yet they are esteemed unworthy, by some, 
of a place in our best endowed -and most popular institutions, so 
that many an Alumnus leaves the halls of his Alma Mater tolera- 
bly versed in Ancient Classics and Mathematics, and entirely igno- 
rant of the names, habits or value of the thousands of natural ob- 
jects around him and under his feet. We would not be understood 
to depreciate or undervalue the study of the Classics, but we sub- 
mit whether in this country, under our circumstances, it might not 
be as well to divide the attention between the Greek roots and 
those which, fresh and strong, bury themselves in our prairie soil 
—thie roots of our trees and plants. 

The utility of Natural History or its applicability to promote 
the material wealth of the State cannot be doubted. It was a 
great mistake to suppose the subjects of Zoology, Botany and Ge- 
ology did not involve much that affects our comfort, convenience, 
health and wealth. I remember having planted a beautiful tree. 
It was nourished with care and became one of our garden pets. It 
was admired for its symmetry and beauty by all who beheld it. 
In course of time the garden and its appurtenances passed into 
other hands. What was before a beautiful retreat, was now to be 
turned to the making of money. Tenant houses were erected and 
the garden, neglected and exposed, was soon destroyed. Stiil the 
beautiful tree remained, a solitary monument to mark the spot where 
culture had been bestowed. But vandalism had not completed its 
work ; the mechanic who was about to raise another structure, and 
loth to destroy a tree whose beauty charmed him, called the own- 
er of the property to know whether he should cut down the tree 
or prune it closely on one side, to enable him to raise his frame. 
After a brief examination, the owner remarked, with an oath, “Cut 
it down, cut it down, trees don’t make money.” That man’s idea 
was, that money .was wealth, and in getting money he worked 
hard, lived meanly and died early. It was not in the same spirit 
that the sentiment was uttered, that “he was a public benefactor 
who made two blades of grass grow where one grew before.” “In 
certain parts of Maine, the locust tree borer (eytus pictus) has de- 
stroyed nearly all the locust trees. In another part of Maine the 
apple tree borer (saperda candida) has destroyed whole orchards, 


92 


which a very little pains-taking would have saved, had the farmer 
only known the habits of the insects. A borer, very similar to the 
last mentioned, has done much damage to the sugar maples in 
Maine.” 

Trees do make money, and he who will furnish the antidote to 
the “bark louse,” that infests our fruit trees, will make money for 
himself and the community. Mr. Walsh, of Rock Island, an able 
and enthusiastic Entomologist, has estimated, Ly careful caleula- 
tion, the loss to our crops by the devastations of insects, at one 
hundred millions of dollars per annum. This, in the opinion of 
Naturalists, might be prevented. The insect armies that invade 
our fields are more to be dreaded than an army of foreign merce- 
naries. ‘The utility of a study that will lead to the investigation of 
the character and habits of insect life, in order to facilitate their 
destruction, either by destroying their larvee or in increasing their 
natural enemies, is, we think, apparent. The Hessian-fly, the 
midge, the chinch-bug, the bark-louse, the Minnesota grasshoppers, 
are very insignificant, individually, yet, when they invade our 
fields, the hopes of the farmer are dissipated and his labor is de- 
stroyed. Surely, if there is an antidote to such mischief, it would 
be useful to know and apply it. There has been some discussion 
in the Prairie Farmer concerning the value of the little bird known 
as the “Sap-sucker.” It is maintained that it is one of our great- 
est enemies, inasmuch as he kills our trees by boring through the 
bark to extract the sap; while others maintain that it is one of the 
fruit grower’s best friends, since it is so indefatigable in its de- 
struction of the vermin which abound in the orchard. So, too, an- 
other writer in the same paper speaks of the “Brown Thrasher” as 
a pest to the farmer, and of no value to trees or fields. A little 
knowledge, properly applied, would settle these questions without a 
waste of paper, and thus demonstrate the practical utility of the 
study of Ornithology. Of the value of Botany and Geology it is 
not necessary to speak, though by some the former has been con- 
sidered only a fit pursuit for sentimental, flower-language young 
ladies, while the latter has found favor only with those who wish 
to confute Genesis by Geology. Both of these ideas illustrate the 
narrowness and illiberality of those who make such objections. 

Having treated briefly of the value of the subjects of Natural 
History, intellectually and in point of utility, it becomes us to 
speak of the subject as to its moral relations. ‘The double effect 
of the study of Natural History,” says Ruschenberger, “‘is to im- 
part a certainty to the mind, and religion to the heart. The crea- 
tion is a visible ladder by which man ascends towards the invisible 
CREATOR. Philosophy, politics, history and morality itself, are 
subject to the intellectual revolutions of wavering humanity; but 
the facts of the creation are as invariable as God, and the analysis 
of a plant or an insect marks its demonstration with the seal of 
eternal truth.” Children are liable to be cruel and tyrannical when 
no direction is given to their minds. Give a boy a gun and he 


93 


will slaughter every living animal that is not the subject of property, 
without discrimination, without com punction or remorse. He kills 
for the sake of the killing; and the dying agonies of a wounded 
sparrow excite no sympathy, no regret. Think you that if a com- 
panionship had been established between him and livi ing things; 
that he had learned their value in the scheme of creation; their 
uses in the economy of Nature; their beauty, their i innocence, their 
helplessness, that he would thus destroy them for mere wanton- 
ness? We know, from observation and experience, that there can 
be a softening, humanizing influence brought to be: ar upon ¥outh- 
ful minds through a correspondence and communion with Nature’s 
works. Those who are interested in birds and flowers must be re. 
fined by the association. An intimate connection with the varied 
works of creation leads the mind from vicious associations, and 
reserves it from contact and contamination. The man or woman 
educated to observe and reflect upon the condition of natural ob- 
jects, can never be alone—will never want companionship. Un- 
der circumstances where others would be miserable and lonely, 
the Naturalist may indulge in sweet, though silent communion with 
Nature, and look “through Nature up to Nature’s God.” 

The phy sical adv antages to be derived from these pursuits are a 
matter of no small consideration. The practical study must be 
performed in the open air, requiring oftentimes a considerable ex- 
ercise of strength and endurance. The dev elopment of the intel- 
lect without a “corresponding i increase of physical strength is a de- 
fective training which results in evil. Let a boy become interested 
in the collection of plants, of shells, of birds or of fossils, and there 
is no doubt that the increased vigor of his body would alone com- 
pensate for his exertions. We have known students, reduced phy- 
sically to a low condition by a neglect of the laws of Nature and of 
health, to become completely rejuv venated by geological and botani- 
cal researches in the fields and quarries. Hlow important that we 
should educate our youth symmetrically, and thus prevent those 
accidents so generally the concomitants of the student’s life. 

But it may be said that this is all very pretty and very true, 
but how can any of these subjects be brought within the range of 
a large portion of the common schools. They can only inciden- 
tally. The real live teacher, if he be interested in the subjects, 
even though his education is as yet defective, may give a direction 
to the minds of his pupils in this matter w hich will be of great ser- 
vice. 

The New York Tribune gives a very beautiful incident, showing 
how hungry the children of a large city are for flowers. “Our old 
friend and correspondent, R. G. Pardee, who is now living in New 
York city, visited a day school last fall, when the Asters were in 
flower, and promised to save seed, plant them in the spring, and 
the present June to give each child a plant who would agree to 
set it out in the yard, or a pot, and take good care of it. “A. few 


o4 


days since, Mr. Pardee visited the school again, to see if the chil- 
dren remembered the promise, and not one had forgotten it. 

“ Now,” said he, “I am ready to fulfill my promise. I have 
planted the seed, and God has blessed it and the object for which 
it was planted ; for he loves little children. Now about these little 
plants. I can’t pull them up and bring them here, because they will 
wilt, and perhaps die; but as many of you as can find a place to 
plant one in the ground, and will promise me to take care of it, 
shall have one to-morrow at five o’clock, at my honse in Thirty- 
fifth street. I will take them from the bed where they are grow- 
ing, and wrap a little paper and dirt around the roots, and you can 
each take one in your hands and run home and set it out, and water 
it, and it will live and grow and bear flowers. But no one need 
come who is not willing to take care of it for months, and wait pa- 
tiently for its flowers.” 

“T fear,” said the teacher, “that they will be troublesome in go- 
ing to your house.” 

“Oh, no; I presume of the thousands here, not more than a hun- 
dred will come.” 

“In this he was mistaken ; for before four o’clock the streets be- 
gan to fill with children. They soon filled the steps of Mr. Pardee’s 
house, as well as those of his neighbors, and the sidewalks were 
lined with amateur fiorists. For two hours he labored as fast as - 
possible to supply their little hands—the girls first, the boys, at his 
suggestion, generously giving way and quietly waiting their turn, 
until, instead of the anticipated one hundred, he furnished a ma- 
jority of the whole school. For two hours, the street was a scene 
of great interest. Passers by stopped to gaze and wonder, and in- 
quire what it all meant. The windows and doors of neighboring 
houses all exhibited curious faces and eyes gleaming with pleasure 
at such an unwonted scene in that quiet locality. Already had the 
flowers blossomed and borne fruit in the hearts of the children.” 

The intellectual, the moral, and the physical well-being of the 
school may be promoted by their planting one of each of the indi- 
genous trees of the district in the schoohouse yard, and by observ- 
ing their likenesses and their dissimilarities. Besides the practical 
lesson taught in the planting of a tree, which every person, espe- 
cially in Illinois, shouid understand and practice, there is a moral 
influence imparted which cannot be calculated. Those who invest 
interest and labor in planting a tree or shrub will likely attach 
some value to the object by that act. If one is interested in trees 
of his own planting, and appreciates their value, he will likely take 
care of those in which the community have an interest. Every 
school might have a little cabinet containing many of the curiosi- 
ties of the district. Fossils, minerals, botanical preservations, In- 
dian relics, and anything curious might be collected, which, although 
not scientifically named and arranged, would do good. 

To those who may desire to turn their attention these interesting 
branches of study and yet not know where to get the desired books, 


95 


we would recommend Dr. Ruschenberger’s Natural History, (two 

volumes,) embracing the elements of “Anatomy and Physiology, 
Mammalogy, Ornithology, Herpitology, Ichthyology, Conchology 
Entomology, Botany and Geology. Lo those who might desire 
more extended works, “ Vanderhceven’s Hand-book of ‘Zoology, 4s 
(two volumes,) is recommended ; in Botany, ‘ Gray’s First Lessouis 
and Manual;” Geology, ‘ Ly all’s Principles and Manual,” also, 
* mmons’ Manual; > Outlines of Comparative Phy sioloey,” 
Agassz & Gould; in Mineralogy, Dana’s. 

‘One of the chief designs of ‘this paper is to direct the attention 
of the members of the State Teachers’ Association tothe fact of 
the existence of the Illinois State Natural Iistory Society. A 
brief history of its formation may not be without interest. At the 
meeting of this Association, in December, 1857, held at Decatur, a 
paper was read from Mr. Cyrus Thomas, of Carbondale, Jackson 
county, suggesting the formation of a State Natural History Society, 
and suggesting the State Normal School as its head- quarters and 
the place for its Museum. In accordance with this suggestion, a 
meeting was called at the rooms of the Normal University, in 
Bloomington, on the 30th of June following, when a plan of opera- 
tions was agr reed upon, and officers elected, of whom Professor J. 
B. Turner was elected President. Since that time two annual 
meetings have been held, and at each succeeding meeting the evi- 
dence of increasing interest has been exhibited by increased num- 
bers. Papers have been presented by President J. B. Turner, on 
“Microscopic Insects ;” by Dr. Frederick Brendel, of Peoria, ¢ 
“ Forests, or Forest Tyas ;? by Cyrus Thomas, of Carbondale, on 
“The Study of Natural History ;” by Dr. Frederick Brendel, on 
“Meteorology, in connection with Botanical Investigation ; mn by 
George Vaseys of McHenry county, on ‘ Mosses of illinois ;’ "ey 
Dr. E. R. Roe, of Bloomington, as “Notes on the Great Drouth in 
1853 and 754; ” by Cyrus ‘Thomas, on “Orthoptera of Llinois ;” by 
Professor J. B. Mission subject, “Mind, Force, and Matter;” by 
B. D. Walsh, of Rock Island, subject, “Tnsect Life, in its relation 
to the interests of Agriculture oi Bay Dr, Oliv er Everett, of Dixon, 
on “Geology of a Section of Rock River;” by Dr. E. BR. Roe, 
of Bloomington, “Some Features of the Drift Formation in Tili- 
nois;” by Dr. Adams, of Jacksonville, on “A Plan for the Study 
of Natural History ;” by Dr. F rederick Brendel, on “The Peculiar 
Growth of the Water ‘Lily, (Nelumbium Luteum.) Following 
out the original design of Mr. Thomas, the Normal University 
building was planned with a large and beautiful hall, one hundred 
feet by thirty-three feet, for the Museum. Through the indef fatiga- 
ble exertions of Mr. C. D. Wilber, the agent of the Society—now 
its Secretary—and others too numerous to mention, the collection 
made within the last two years amounts to nearly sixty thousand 
specimens. Such a collection made within so short & period is 
perhaps the best evidence of the vigor and strength of the Society, 
and the devotedness of its members. Until the present time the 


96 


halls have not been ready for the display of the Society’s collection, 
but it is expected that within a few weeks, under the good taste 
and management of Mr. R. U1. Holder, of Bloomington, Treasurer 
and Curator, it will be open for exhibition. The library of the 
Society will embrace everything that can be procured by gift, pur- 
chase or exchange, upon Natural History in particular, and Sci- 
ence in general. The library, at present, contains three hundred 
volumes, which are under the care of Mr. Ira Moore, Librarian. 
Every member of the Society can avail himself of this means of 
adding to his stock of knowledge in any branch of the subject in 
which he is specially interested. It is to this object the funds of the 
Society will be chiefly devoted. 

Commissions have been appointed in the several divisions of Nat- 
ural History to investigate everything in their several departments 
and report at the next annual meeting. Among these it is expect- 
ed that a complete list of the Ornithology of the State, as far as 
discovered, will be presented by Mr. R. H. Holder, together with 
a treatise on the T'axidermy of birds, or “Bird Stuffing.” A com- 
plete Flora will also be published from the joint labors of Drs. Va- 
sey, Brendel, Mead, Everett and M. 8. Bebb. 

Itis due, however, to the general intelligence of our people of Ili- 
nois, to say that, without their generous appreciation of the subject, 
their hearty co-operation with the plans proposed, and their great 
liberality in giving and doing for the cause, comparatively little of 
what has been done could have been accomplished. The Society 
is indebted to the State Agricultural Society for the interest it has 
manifested in giving such ample opportunities to present the sub- 
jects, by the exhibitions of specimens, to the attention of the peo- 
ple at large, collected at the State Fairs; and also for the privilege 
of publishing their papers and reports in the Agricyltural Society’s 
Transactions, where they may be found entire. 

Without the marked favor of the various railroad companies the 
Society wold have been alinost helpless, but with their commenda- 
ble liberality they have done more than anything else to demon- 
strate the public spirit and intelligence of the State. The Press, 
it is needless to say, has been one of the great levers in this move- 
ment. We owe it our gratitude; more said in its behalf would be 
superfluous. 

And now, fellow teachers, what can we do to promote the inter- 
ests of this Association? We answer much, and in many ways. 
The Museum and Library established at the Normal University 
was put in that place that it might benefit, directly or indirectly, 
every teacher and school in the State. They have cost and will 
cost a great expenditure of time, study and money to the friends 
of the enterprise, and you can assist and cheer them in their self- 
denying labors, by showing your sympathy for and appreciation of 
the cause ; by extending a knowledge of it among the people and 
the schools ; by forming auxiliary societies; by establishing school 
cabinets; by sending rare specimens of fossils, beasts, birds, fishes, 


97 


reptiles or plants, to the cabinet at Bloomington ; and last, though 
not least, in giving of your means to increase > the diffusion of know- 
ledge by ‘accumulating : a large and valuable store of scientific works 
in the library. Articles VIII and IX of the Constitution pre- 
scribe that “Any resident of the State of Illinois may become a 
member of this Society on the payment of five dollars, if elected by 
a majority of the members present at any regular meeting; provi- 
ded, the names of candidates for membership shall in all cases 
be presented on the recommendation of two members of the So- 
ciety. Each regular member shall pay an annual assessment of one 
dollar, after the first year of his membership.” 

Hoping that many members of the Teachers’ Association may 
be enrolled upon the catalogue of members in the Natural History 
Society, and believing that a new and nobler impulse for generous 
and general education may be extended even among our “teachers 
and schools, we will engage your attention no longer. 


ptenah,” * ae ani). 7 fc 
ee heart dee. apt iaas jiete 
xe ae ore ci be Fda tat aot nye ft" 
vee ia eat ee HE rit 


tt, 


Na 


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1? 
ay 


OBJECT LESSONS. 


By J. H. Buopeerv. 


A branch of teaching too little known and used, yet most nearly 
natural, is that of taking an object and giving instr uction by present- 
ing it to the direct observation of the pupils. It is not a process in 
which the teacher or the book tells the facts in regard to the thing 
considered, but one in which the living teacher puts in reach of their 
senses, W here they see and handle, the mineral, the animal, or the 
flower and plant. In theory, this is the per fection of teaching. 
Things and qualities are thus taught before words and names. The 
latter being needed by the pupil, are retained by him with ease, while 
he can scarcely retain them at all when learned in the routine of an 
ordinary book lesson, given before he has himself noted the quali- 
ties. In actual practice, the objects cannot always be presented. 
A menagerie or botanical garden cannot be attached to ever 
school, or a collection of the mineral productions of the earth. 
Some aid can be had trom pictures, and yet we must depend large- 
ly upon the printed descriptions of travelers and naturalists. but 
this can be done. We can take the natural mode of teaching with 
reference to articles close at hand, and the terms necessarily em- 
ployed will convey vivid meaning when they occur on the printed 
page or in the eral lecture, or narrative of a traveler from remote 
regions, with regard to strange objects there. There is a peculiar- 
ity in the arrangement of natural products wondrously favorable 
to thorough instruction in regard to most of the productions of the 
earth, with access to those of but a single State or even county. 
While the varieties and species of plants and animals as well as min- 
erals are almost innumerable, they may be grouped into a few 
great classes or families which tell their likeness by qualities differ- 
ing only in degree. Thus, a common cat serves to teach the his- 
tory of the puma and the Jeopard, the tiger and the lion, with the 
wildcat of our own forests, and the whole tribe of soft- footed, re- 
tractile-clawed, bearded, furry, treacherous, semi-nocturnal beasts 
of prey. The foot of a common spaniel illustrates that of the fox 
and wolf, as also his teeth and his general habits are like theirs. 


100 


A spear of timothy grass grows in like manner, to a great extent, 
with the corn-stalk of our own fields, the sugar cane of the south, 
and the huge bamboo of the East Indies. A piece of LaSalle or 
DuQuoin coal, tells the same general story as that in English mines, 
or the peat in an Irish bog. An accurate knowledge of a bit of 
common limestone with its load of shells and other marks of dead 
generations, enables us to understand Vermont or Italian marble, 
English chalk cliffs, the gypsum of France, and the beautiful alabas- 
ter of a parlor ornament. Nature has furnished most parts of the 
habitable earth with a pretty full set of specimens-of the work she 


does in other parts. Even the odd specimens so-called, of remote _ 


regions are but combinations of qualities and forms elsewhere man- 
ifested. The duck-billed Platypus, a great puzzle to naturalisis 
who visit Australia, is described to us as having a bill like a duck, 
a body like a mole, and as laying eggs. That description, when the 
measurement of the animal is given, will be perfectly clear to any 
child who has caught a mole throwing up his tunnel in the garden 
or grass-plot; rolled on the haymow when sent to hunt hens’ nests; 
and set ducks’ eggs underahen. The brilliancy and gorgeousness 
of the plumage of tropical birds is readily comprehended by the 
child who has been able to examine the dress of a humming-bird, 
or even to note the glossy changeable coloring of the neck of the 
common blackbird, stepping so briskly over the furrows of the 
Spring plowman. Yet the examples are not everywhere at hand 
to illustrate the works of nature elsewhere. Vast numbers never 
saw iron ore or native copper, or knew, by the eye, some most im- 
portant classes of plants and animals. Hence, the importance of 
museums, where samples may be deposited showing what beds of 
ore exist, what forests there are in remote regions, and what beasts 
and birds and insects roam and sing and buzz there. Here, shells 
and corals, with mounted fishes, tell us of the wonders of the’ great 
deep. So far, we have only viewed these as teaching physical 
facts; but where else are we to gain knowledge of moral and intel- 
lectual truth, except as it isillustrated by these? Ever since Adam 
was set to dress the garden and name the animals, down to to-day, 
moral training has come much through nature’s visible forms. Our 
Savior taught faith and trust in God by the lily and the grass of 
the field. Paul, the great preacher, taught the doctrine of resur- 
rection by the grain of wheat cast into the ground. The seeming 
death and change of many winged insects, as they are successively 
grub, chrysalis and bug, is a lesson on the same point. 

The museum of the Illinois Natural History Society is a great 
educational agent. Its location at the Normal University, will en- 
able those preparing to go forth as teachers to know more fully 
what text books describe, and to make their pupils see more clearly 
the force of descriptions given in their readers and geographies. 
It will break down narrowness of view and awaken enthusiasm and 
energy in studying the great book everywhere open before us. 
Then we shall have in the scattered districts little groups of child 


101 


naturalists watching with interest the successive steps of a lady- 
bug’s lite, or learning to know the destructive caterpillar, when it 
comes in its beautiful winged apparel, laying eggs for future gene- 
rations of voracious destroyers of the crops, but so splendid and 
graceful that like a rich rascal in human society, it receives admi- 
ration and immunity, instead of being made to pay the penalty of 
its crimes. Then, too, miniature museums will be forming in the 
common schools. A bit of lava will be secured to give reality to a 
description of a volcano, and a piece of iron ore will tell the story 
of Pilot Knob and the Iron Mountain. An Indian pipe, hatchets 
and arrow-heads, will remind the little folks of the red man’s his- 
tory. Nor will the little ones alone be interested. Let a teacher 
begin to gather such a collection and if he has a little enthusiasm, 
and it begins to be understood that such a collection is being made, 
he will find that the whole neighborhood will be interested to give 
or put on deposit curious articles. His school cabinet will be re- 
membered when strange objects are met with in plowing, or ona 
journey. The general interest in the school will be increased and 
the lessons assigned in text books better learned and more tho- 
roughly understood. 

This is no fancy sketch. There are schools where this is so 
now. Those birdsin the museum at Bloomington have indirectly 
awakened in two schools that could be named great interest and 
zeal in the study of Ornithology. The same schools and others 
are also wide awake as to the rocks and minerals about them. 

Object lessons have received little attention in this country. In 
Great Britain and Germany the case is different. There the sub- 
ject is much more popular and more extensively practiced. Books 
that scarce find any market here are published in Great Britain 
with titles like the following: “Lessons on Objects;” “Lessons on 
Shells;” ‘Model Lessons,” for primary schools; “Information on 
Common Objects;” and the Home and Colonial School Society puts 
up little cabinets of objects to be sold to such schools as may use such 
mode of teaching. The cabinet comprises a set of calcareous min- 
erals, also silicions, saline and inflammable; with specimens of the 
metals, and needles, pens and other commen things made of them; 
of vegetable matters, specimens of field grains, small fruits, spices 
and gums; of animal production, shells, bones, feathers, ivory, 
leather, parchment and other articles, of which a small amount an- 
swers as aspecimen; together with cloths of various fabrics, as flax, 
silk, cotton and wool. All this costs but little. A movement has 
been inaugurated by the Natural History Society, to have small 
cabinets made for sale, the proceeds to be used tor a book fund.* 
Here schools may secure collections that will aid much in the work 


of Object Teaching, if so situated that they cannot by their own 


*Norr.—I have heard that B. D. Walsh, of Rock Island, expects to put up cheap cab- 
inets of Insects, illustrating the characteristics of the different families. I hope it is 
true, and that the schools will second the effort to diffuse such knowledge. 


102 


labor or exchange, secure them at home. This museum will 
strengthen the current turning toward Object Teaching, and in- 
augurate a new mode of teaching i in our schools. It will prove one 
of the best educational forces of this period of our State history, 
and the men who have sacrificed money and time for its establish- 
ment, will yet be regarded as great educators, even though some of 
them never “kept school.” It is highly appropriate that the dedi- 
cation of the rooms takes place so near the time of the meeting of 
the State Teachers’ Association. 

Object Teaching has been so little used that a short specimen 
lesson may not be amiss here. The lesson presented is not intend- 
ed to teach new facts to the children, any farther than they are led 
to observe them, and thus give form to their knowledge instead of 
adding to it. The lesson is : from Mayo’s Model Lessons. The ar- 
ticle before the children is a lock of Woot. 

“Whatis this? Wool. Where does wool cometfrom? It comes 
off the sheep’s back. What sort of a thing is a sheep? An ani- 
mal. Whatis wool then? Partofananimal. Of what use is the 
wool to the sheep? To keep it warm. Can the sheep make its 
own wool? No. Who gave the little sheep this warm clothing? 
God. Yes, God gave the sheep this warm clothing because it can- 
not make any for itself. 

“Now pass this wool about; look at it and feel it, and tell me 
what you can find out about it. It is soft. tepeat—wool is soft. 
It is all hairs. Do you see all the hairs? Yes. Repeat, then— 
wool is formed of hairs. Feel it again. Itisdry. Repeat—wool 
is dry. What more? tis warm. Does it feel warm when you 
touch it, like fire? No. What do you mean then? It keeps us 
warm. Jtepeat—wool keeps us warm. Yes, it keeps us warm, 
because it prevents the warmth of our bodies from passing away 
from us. 

“Who can tell me what wool is used for? To make stockings 
and flannel. What is that very thick flannel you have on your 
beds? Blankets. Do you know any kind of clothes made of it? 
Yes, father’s coat. And what have some persons on their floors to 
keep their feet warm? Carpets. Carpets are made of wool? 

“Now repeat all you have said of wool. Wool comes off the 
sheep’s back, the clothing which God gave it to keep it warm; 
wool is soft, dry, and for med of hairs; it keeps us Warm; it is made 
into stockings, flannel, blankets, and ‘carpets. di 


*Note.—Any one who has not paid attention to the subject will be surprised to find 
more than a large octavo page of fine print, ocenpied by the mere oudlines of the lessons 
on acommon pen, in a book on Object Teaching, edited by Henry Barnard, and pub- 
lished by George Sherwood, Chicago. 


NOTES ON ILLINOIS INSECTS. 


By Cyrus Tuomas, of Murphysboro, Illinois. 


In attempting to write a paper, or work of any kind, on the in- 
sects of any section, although the most simple and unscientific lan- 
guage be used, yet an outline of the classification of these animals 
is absolutely necessary, in order that you may be understood by 
readers not Entomologists. Think for a moment of the vast num- 
ber of species belonging to this class, and the truth of the forego- 
ing remark will be admitted. Fully one hundred and fifty thousand 
species have already been described; which, in ten years more, 
may be increased one-third. In Illinois, alone, we have probably 
five thousand different species; perhaps more. To describe all 
these, and give a history of the transformations and habits of each, 
would require half a dozen quartos of a thousand pages each. 
Therefore, in order to avoid this difficulty, Naturalists have adopted 
a system of classification, by which this vast multitude can be ar- 
ranged in groups, each group having certain characteristics in com- 
mon. And, as a general thing, the various species of each group 
not only agree in figure but have similar habits. For instance, the 
family Caranip£, among the beetles, contains only predaceous spe- 
cies, while the almost equally extensive family CurcuLion1p& con- 
tains only vegetable eaters. The definition of “species” is one of 
the most difficult tasks assigned the Naturalist. It corresponds 
very nearly with the common term “sort” or “kind.” It is that 
race or chain of beings, descended from common parents, and 
which always produces the same kind, similar in every respect, or 
very nearly so. For instance, the White Oak is a species, the 
Black Oak is another; and the acorn or fruit of one will not pro- 
duce a tree of the other kind. Insects being small animals, great 
care is necessary to avoid confounding one species with another, 
or making two species out of one, where the sexes differ. On the 
fact of the permanency of species hangs the entire system of classi- 
fication. For if what is now a White Oak may in a century pro- 
duce a Black Oak or a Chestnut, and what is now a frog may in 
five hundred years produce a bird, a description given by Aristotle 


104 


or Linneus would be of no service to us of this day. In fact, 
Natural History would cease to be a science. Then starting with 
the admitted fact that species ever remain distinct, we next gather 
into a group those species having the parts of the body similarly 
arranged, and proportioned alike, though varying in color, size or 
marks, which collection is termed a genus—(plural genera.) Next, 
those genera that are alike in a number of particulars, and that con- 
tain species having similar habits, are grouped together and form 
a family ; which, at least among insects, is the most natural and 
definitely marked group from species to class. All the families of 
insects have been collected into some eight or ten groups, called 
orders, which are distinguished from each other by tolerably well 
marked characters. And, finally, all these orders taken together 
form the cass Insecta, which stands in the great Animal Kingdom 
as a division, in rank, equal to the Quadruped class (Mammalia,) or 
the Bird class (Aves,) ete. 

The term znsect, (which includes all in the class Znsecta,) at the 
present day, is limited to those animals with articulated*bodies, di- 
vided into three chief portions—the head, the thoraw and abdomen, 
having three pairs of legs, and generally, one or two pairs of wings. 
They also pass through several transformations, called their meta- 
morphoses. They pass through, during their lives, four forms or 
states of being, in many species very different from each other, to 
which the following names have been given—the egg, the larva, 
the pupa, and the ¢mago or perfect insect. The egg is the first 
form in which they enter upon a state of being—all known species 
(with the exception of some few species, chiefly among the two- 
winged flies,) being first produced in this form. When hatched 
from the egg they enter upon the larva state, in which they generally 
assume a worm-like form. In this state some are possessed of legs, 
others have none, some are true grubs, others caterpillars ; whilst 
others, as grasshoppers, bugs, etc., have the form of their perfect 
state, only differing in size and wanting wings. Some pass this 
portion of their lives in the water, others in the trunks or leaves of 
trees, in plants, fruits, the ground, in filth or the-bodies of other 
insects or other animals. And it is also during this state that the 
vegetable-eaters are most destruetive to vegetation, for during it 
their only business is to eat and grow. After having passed 
through the length of time assigned them by nature for this form 
of existence, they next enter upon the pupa state. In this state 
the majority of insects cease to eat, lose their larva form, and in 
cocoons, hardened cases or otherwise, enter upon a death-like state 
of rest. Though some, as crickets, grasshoppers, bugs, ete., con- 
tinue active, eating and increasing in size, frequently casting off 
the skin, whilst little wings begin to appear, which increase in size 
at each moulting. J’rom this state they next pass into the wmago 
or perfect state. When this is reached they do not increase in size 
or undergo any further moultings, and their chief business now 
seems to be to prepare for a continuation of the species. And here 


105 


I may be allowed to correct a common error, by stating that little 
flies and little beetles, etc., will never become larger ones. 

These various and wonderful changes in the form of insect life 
are worthy the attention not only of the professed Naturalist, but 
of the farmer and of every lover of Nature and her laws. It is no 
idle thing to trace the finger of a wise Creator in the wonderful 
plans of his handiwork in even so small a thing as an insect. Ifa 
loathsome crawling reptile were to descend into the earth and there, 
for a time, remain buried in a death-like sleep, coiled in a made cell 
or a cast off skin, and then come forth a beautiful bird, decorated 
with all the colors of the rainbow, we would look upon the changed 
animal with wonder and amazement. Yet to see a worm trans- 
formed into a brilliant beetle or gay butterfly excites no amaze- 
ment; first, because it is a common occurrence, and, secondly, be- 
cause of its small size. Is not the manifestation of power and 
wisdom as great in the one case as it would be in the other? In 
these changes is exhibited to us a type of the various changes 
through which all animals pass, even up to man himself. 

The great animal kingdom, as before stated, is divided into dif- 
ferent vast groups, each having a distinct and somewhat different 
series of changes or metamorphoses through which they pass. 
Yet that all do pass through some such series of changes can no 
longer be doubted. And it is in connection with this fact we find 
any reasonable explanation for neuters among insects, and of the 
means bees adopt to supply a new queen. 

In speaking of or describing insects, when no reference is made 
to a given period of their existence, the perfect insect is intended. 

In describing insects it is necessary to make use of some terms 
nut used in ordinary language ; therefore, I will give a short expla- 
nation of some few of these terms, not that I expect to use them, 
but as a means of reference. The bodies of perfect insects are con- 
sidered to be divided into three parts; first, the head ; second, the 
thorax, which is the portion to which the legs and wings are attach- 
ed, and is situated between the head and the abdomen ; third, the 
abdomen, the hinder part of the insect, and is generally divided 
into segments or rings. From the front of the head arise twoslen- 
der, thread-like, jointed appendages, varying in the different fami- 
lies and genera; these are called antennew. From the mouth of 
such as have horny jaws (mandibles) arise sometimes four and 
sometimes six slender jointed appendages, generally much 
shorter than the antenne, and generally composed of three or four 
joints; these are called palpi. The under side of the thorax is 
called the pectus or sternum. The triangular piece between the 
base of the wings, or wing-covers, is called scutellum or.scutel. The 
horny wing-covers of beetles and bugs, and leathery wing-covers 
of grasshoppers are called elytva. The upper side of the abdomen, 
tergum ; the underside,venter—its base is the part that joins the 
thorax; the apex, the latter end. The legs and feet, taken to- 
gether, are often called feet » femur or femora are thigh or thighs ; 


—12 


106 


tibiw, shanks; tars?, toes. The horny jaws are called mandibles. 
The long snout, with which some insects are furnished, is called 
rostrum. -The first or basal joints of the antenne or rostrum are 
those next the head. 

In connection with the fgregoing remarks, I herewith present a 
list of Illinois Coleoptera, together with a few remarks upon the 
order and families. J wouid be glad to descend more into particu- 
lars, and describe and give the history of some of the most impor- 
tant and obnoxious species, but space and time will not permit it. 


COLEOPTERA. 


This order is usually placed at the head of the list by systema- 
tists, though not always. It contains a larger number of species, 
and has received more attention than any other order of insects. 
The word Coleoptera signities wings ina sheath ; and the name has 
been applied on account of the hard, horny wing-coyers with 
which the species are furnished, The common name, beedle, is ap- 
plied to exactly the same insects. The characters of the order may 
be stated, in short, thus: 

“Insects with jaws moving sideways, two thick, horny wing- 
covers (elytra) meeting in a straight line on the top of the back, 
and two filmy wings, which, when at rest, are folded transversely 
under the wing-covers. The larve are called grubs, generally 
provided with six true legs, and sometimes also with a terminal 
proleg. Such species as undergo their transformations in nuts, 
fruits, and in timber, are often destitute of legs. The,pups are in- 
active.” 


FIRST FAMILY—CICINDELID. 


This family includes those active ferocious beetles, that we fre- 
quently see flying and lighting before us in the road, when the 
sun is hot; as we approach, they again take flight and drop down 
a few stepsin advance, generally with their heads turned toward us. 
They havelong legs, and run with great rapidity. The species found 
here are of medium size, one-third to three-fourths of an inch long, 
mostly with bright colors, generally green or bronzed, with white 
spots or marks. They have received the name of tiger-beetles, 
from their bright colors and ferocious habits. A bright green 
species, with six white dots on the elytra, is thought, by many, to 
be a “blister-fly.” 

As all the species of this family, both in the larva and perfect 
state, live on other insects, of course they are beneficial to us, and 
not injurious. 


Megacephala—Virginica. 


Cicindela—generosa, purpurea, formosa, lembalis, sexguttata, modesta, repanda, hirti- 
colles, cuprascens, duodecemguttata, vulgaris, lepida, punctulati, lecontei. 


107 


2—CARABIDA. 


This is the most numerous family of the order, embracing a great 
many genera, often very difficult to distinguish. In fact, a great 
many unnecessary genera have been formed, which has only added 
confusion to this troublesome family. This family includes the 
predaceous ground beetles, found under shocks of wheat and corn, 
under logs, rails, ete. Those black and dark brown beetles, seen 
running rapidly away when we turn over a log, plank or rai!, in the 
field or at the roadside—those that fly in at the window of a night, 
when the air feels damp, and drop about the floor and on the table, 
ete., and as soon as they light commence running hither and yon- 
der—mostly belong to this family. They are generally of a dark 
color, though several species are of a brilliant metallic luster, most- 
ly green or bronze. The elytra, or wing-cases, are mostiy longitu- 
dinally striated. 

Notwithstanding these insects are often found in situations that 
cause them to be suspected of mischief, yet they are our friends, 
and are there only for the purpose of destroying other insects, on 
which they prey. 

The Illinois species, so far as determined, are as follows: 


Casnonia—Pensylvaniea. Badister—pulchellus. 
Septotrachelus—dorsalis. Patrobus—longicornis. 

Galerita—janus. Calathus—gregarius. 

Zuphium—A mericanun. Pristodactyla—impunetata. 
Cymindis—pilosa, limbata. Platynus—angustatus, ruficornis, sinuatus. 
Calleida—decora, punctata. Anchomenus—sinuatus, cincticolles, ex- 
Dromius—piceus. tensicollis, viridis, decorus, 
Apristus—Americanus. Agonum—8-punctatum, cupripenne, exca- 


Lebia — atriventris, pleuritica, viridipen- vatum, nutans, eruginosum, Harrisii, 
nis, fureata, pulchella, ornata, axillaris, placidum, nigriceps, luctuosum, puncti- 


scapularis, viridis, pumila, moesta. forme, anchomenoides. 
Brachinus—fumans, librator. Anchonoderus—pusellus. 
Scarites—subterraneus, quadriceps. Poecilus—chalcites, lucublandus, frater- 
Pasimachus—elongatus. nus. 
Clivina—bipustulata, Americana, cordata. Loxandrus—erratecus. 
Schizogenius—lineolatus. Feronia—erythropus, mutus, luezotii, cau- 
Dyschirius—sphzricollis, globulosus, «ne- — dicalis, luctuosus, mandibularis, monedu- 
olus. la, Haldermani, scrutator, orbatus, sty- 
Scaphinotus—elevatus. gicus. 
Sphzroderus—stenostomus. Percosia—obesa. 
Carabus—serratus, vinctus, silvosus, lapi- Amara—impuncticollis, rubrica, musculus. 
layi. Tri#na—angustata. 
Calosoma—scrutator, Wilcoxi, frigidum, Bradytus—exaratus, avidus. 
sayi, calidum, externum. Geopinus-—incrassatus. 
Omophron—tessellatum, Americanum. Cratacanthus—dubius. 
Blethisa—quadricollis. Agonoderus—lineola, pallipes, dorsalis, 
Elaphrus—rusearius, clairvillei. Amphasia—fermoratus, interstitialis. 
Panageus—fasciatus. Spongopus—verticalis. 


Chliznius—erythropus rufipes, lithophilus, Anisodactylus—discoidens, Baltimoriensus, 
sericeus, w@stivus, Pensylvanicus, vicinus, nigrita, rusticus, carbonarius, nigerri- 
tricolor, impunctifrons, emarginatus, to- mus, tristis. 


mentosus, niger, pusillus. Eurytrichus—terminatus, (testaceus ?) 
Oodes--Americanus, parallellus. Salenophorus—iripennis. 
Diplocheila—major, laticollis, obtusus, bre- Pangus—caliginosus, lugubris. 

vicollis. Harpalus—Pensylvanicus, (bicolor?) com- 


Dicwlus—purpuratus, violaceus, sculptiles, par, faunus, vulpeculus, herbivagus, ery- 
dejeanii, elongatus. thropus. 


108 


Stenolophus—ochropezus, conjunctus. Ochthedromus—nitidulus, Americanus, sa- 
Bradicellus—autumnalis. lebratus, dorsalis, patruelis, versicolor, 
Acupalpus—humilis. quadrimaculatus, affinis, (fallax ?) luci- 
Bembidium—-impressum, inequale, peludo- — dus. 
sum. Tachys—inornatus, flavicandus. 
DYTISCIDZ. 


This entire family consists of water insects—those species inhab- 
iting stagnant waters. Their posterior legs are formed into akind 
of fringed paddles or oars, which enable them to swim with great 
rapidity, using them in the same manner that the frog uses its 
hind legs. They are very voracious, devouring other insects, and 
even attacking young fish. They are also furnished with wings, 
and may frequently, especially after night, be seen flying about 
candles and fires. 

The following Illinois species have been identified : 


Dytiscus—Harrissii, fasciventris, verticalis, Coptotomus—interrogatus. 


hybridus. Copelatus—glyphicus. 
Cybister—fimbriolatus. Laccophilus—maculosus. 
Acilius—fraternus. Hydrocanthus—iricolor. 
Colymbetes—sculptilis. Hydroporus—undulatus, Americanus. 
Ilybius—fenestralis, pleuriticus. Haliplus—immaculaticollis. 
Agabas—ambiguus. Cnemidotus—duodecimpunctatus. 


Matus—bicarinatns. 


GYRINIDA. 


This family also consists of insects that inhabit the water. They 
are generally to be seen on standing or gently running water, col- 
lected in groups, often in great numbers. They are active, whirl- 
ing round in circles, from which circumstance they are called 
“whirlwigs.” When handled they emit a disagreeable odor. 

These insects live on small dead insects found floating on the 
surface of the water—at least Westwood so informs us. 

Our species are few, and so far have not been examined and de- 
termined by our Entomologists. I can give but one species about 
which I have no doubt. 


Dineutes—labratus. 
Gyrinus—[Of this we have some species; probably borealis and limbatus ?] 


PARNIDA. 


This is a small family of minute sub-aquatic insects, inhabiting 
the borders of ponds, ditches, ete. It is supposed by Latreille 
that they live on animal matter. 

Illinois species : 


Elmis—4-notatus. Macronychus—glabratus, lateralis. 


109 


HYDROPHILIDA, 


The insects belonging to this family are also water insects, re- 
maining during the day in the water, and coming forth in the eve- 
ning, take wing. Their feet are also furnished with hairy fringes, 
which they use as paddles to assist in swimming. 

Our known Illinois species are: 


Helophorus—lineatus. Hydrobius—globosus. 
Hydrochus—scabratus. Philhydrus—cinctus, bifidus. 
Hydrophilus—triangularis, ovalis. Cyclonotum—subcupreum. 
Hydrocharis—obtusatus, glaber. Also some species of spheridium and cercy- 
Berosus—striatus. on not determined. 


PHALACRID& AND ANISOTOMIDA. 


These are two small unimportant families, closely connected with 
the genus Speridium, beforenamed, which latter is not aquatic. 
The only species known to inhabit Illinois, are: 
Phalacrus—pencillatus. Agathidium—piceum ? 

Leiodes—discolor, | probably. ] 
SCAPHIDIID A. 


A family of small insects, residing in agaries, fungi, and under 
the bark of rotten trees. Illinois species: 


Scaphidium—4-guttatum, piceum. 
SILPHIDA. 


These insects render us great service, in removing from the sur- 
face of the earth dead animal matter, which is their chief food. 
They may be distinguished by the three or four jointed club at the 
end of their antennze. They are accompanied by a nauseous odor. 
Our species are as follows: 


Necrophorus—americanus, orbicollis, mar- Thanatophilus—candatus. 
ginatus, velutenus, pustulatus. Necrophila—americana. 
Necrodes—surinamensis. Silpha—inequalis, peltata, marginalis. 


Oiceoptoma—marginata. 
NITIDULIDA. 


This family, as extended by the Melsheimer Catalogue, includes 
a variety of insects, somewhat differing from each other in their 
habits; and some of the genera appear to be very near the Cureu- 
lionide in structure and habits. Some of the species are found 
among bones and animal remains; some beneath the bark of trees; 
some on flowers, and various other places. Some species are 
thought to be injurious to plants, by puncturing the flowers, and 
injuring the fruit, such as the blackberry, raspberry, etc. But, as 
the family appears to be in considerable confusion, we can lay 
down no particular characteristics or habits. Llinois species: 


Cercus—abdominalis. Cryptarcha——ampla. 
Nitidula—bipustulata. Ziczac. Ips—fasciatus, 4-signatus, sanguinolentas. 
Prometopia—6-maculata. Rhizophagus—nanus. 

Omosita—colon. Trogosita—castanea, subnigra, dubia. 


Phenolia—grossa. 


110 


COLYDIIDA, 


Small insects residing mostly under the bark of trees. The two 
species determined as Tilinois species, are: 


Ditoma—quadriguttata. Colydium—longiusculum. 
CUCUJIDE. 


Also a family of small insects, closely allied to the foregoing; 
mostly of an oblong, depressed form. 


Catogenus—rufus. Brontes—dubius. 

Cucujus—clavipes. Telephanus—velox. 

Lemophleus—biguttatus. Silvanus—dentatus, planatus, surinamensis. 
CRYPTOPHAGIDA, 


Also small insects, generally inhabiting boleti, fungi and similar 
vegetable substances. Some of the species are very minute. 


Cryptophagus—celaris, gilvellus. Atomaria—atra? 

LATHRIDIID#. 
Corticaria—denticulata, americana. Lathridius—muszorum. 

EROTYLIDZ. 
Engis—4-inaculata. Triplax—dimidiata, humeralis. 
Daecne—fasciata, heros. Languria—hbicolor, Mozardi, puncticollis, 
Ischyrus—4-punctatus. trifasciata. 

MYCETOPHAGIDZ. 


Mycetophagus—flexuosus, 


The three foregoing families consist, mostly, of very small in- 
sects, and are closely allied in habits, some residing in boleti, fun- 
gi, and decaying vegetable substances; others, beneath the bark of 
dead or decaying trees; others, as species of Lathridius, are said 
to devour the corks of wine and other bottles, thus becoming in- 
jurious. 


DERMESTIDA. 


With this family we enter upon the list of injurious insects. 
The species are not large, yet much too well known for our good. 
It includes those species that feed on dry hides, skins, furs, feath- 
ers, bacon and other dried meats. It is the larvee of some of the 
species included in this family that cut to pieces and destroy our 
ladies’ furs; of others, that so often damage the hides and skins 
stored up by our traders. In fact, scarcely anything escapes their 
attack. Our collections of birds, insects, and other animals, are 
often ruined by these voracious pests. Books and papers are also 
often seriously injured by them. [Illinois species: 


Dermestes—lardarius, marmoratus, cani- Attagenus—pellio, ornatus. 
nus, vulpinus. Anthrenus—castanez 


111 


BYRRHID#. 


Small insects with “short oval or rounded, very convex” bodies, 
“generally covered with short sericeous pile.” Found on the 
ground, in sandy places and foot paths. Our species: 


Byrrhus—varius, americanus. 
THROSCID&. 


Of this family I know nothing. The genus Throscus is said to 
be allied to the Elateridee or snapping-jacks. Our single known 
species is: 


Throscus—constrictor. 
HYSTERID A. 


This family is composed of species easily distinguished by their 
form, which is that of a parallelogram, with slightly rounded cor- 
ners. The body is very flat, highly polished, and very hard, so 
much so that it is with difficulty a pin can be made to penetrate it. 
They reside in the dung of horses and cows and under the bark of 
damp decaying ordead trees. Their color is mostly jet black, occa- 
sionally having a red spot or spotson the elytra. The species are 
all small, seldom exceeding the fourth of an inchin length. The lar- 
vee of [ister interruptus is at least ten times the size of the per- 
fect insect. Illinois species: 


Epierus—minor. Platysoma—LeContii. 
Hister—arcuatus, abbreviatus, interruptus, Hololepta—zqualis. 
americanus, bimaculatus. Saprinus—pensylvanicus, assimilis. 


Paromalus—histriatus. 


LAMELLICORNIA. 


This family, as given in the Melsheimer Catalogue, is a very 
unwieldy affair, though well marked by its distinguishing char- 
acter, which is given as follows: Antenne generally short, nine 
or ten jointed, and terminated by a large club, composed of sev- 
eral—generally three—of the terminal joints formed into long 
plates, which open like the leaves of a book. Many Entomologists 
have divided this group into several families, and as there are quite 
a number of genera varying much in habit I shall group them 
somewhat after Westwood, and at the end of each group append 
such remarks as I think applicable: 


Cheridium—capistratum. Copris—carolina, anoglypticus, ammon, 
Canthon—levis. [This is the well known Phanzeus—carnifex. 
pill roller. | Onthophagus—hecate, ovatus. 


The foregoing species are included in the family Scarabida of 
MacLeay. Among them are found our common black and brassy- 
green dung beetles, so frequently seen in the roads and streets, 
during the hot days of summer. 


Aphodius—fimetarius, concavus, strigatus, omissus, serval, curtus, granarius. 
Acanthocerus—aphodioides. 


112 


These are mostly small insects, being much less, generally, than 
the previous group, but having similar habits. 


Trox—tuburceulatus, porcatus, capillaris, terrestris, acqualis. 


Insects of medium size, having a large thorax and exceedingly 
thick, rough external covering ; inhabiting dried animal substances 
and excrements. 


Geotrupes—splendidus, blackburni, excrementi, egeriei. 
Balbocerus—farctus, lazarus, melibocus. 


Similar in appearance and habits to the Scarabide. 


Lucanus—dama, lentus. [Stag-beetles.] Platycerus—quercus. 
Doreus—parallelus. Passalus—cornutus. 
Ceruchus—piceus. 


This last is a well known, large, long, black beetle, found in and - 
under old dry, well rotted logs—having a horn on the thorax. 


Dynastes—tityus. Cyclocephala—angularis. 
Xyloryetes—satyrus. Pelidnota—punctata. 
Heteronychus—relictus. Areoda—lanigera. 
Podalgus—cuniculus, tridentatus, Trichestes—pilosicolles. 


Chalepus—tracypygus. 


The P. punctata and A. lanigera are very abundant, coming 
forth from their hiding places in the evening, at twilight. They 
are near an inch in length, thick, fleshy beetles. They devour 
the tender leaves of the trees, among which they hide during the 
day. 


Phyllophaga—quercina, balia, hirticula, fu- Strigoderma—arboricola. 


tilis, ilicis, pruinosa, brunnea. Hoplia—trifasciata, mucorea. 
Diplotaxis—sordida, Osmoderma—eremicola, scabra. 
Omaloplia—sericea, micans. Trichius—piger, affinis, delta. 
Serica—yvespertina, tristis. Cremastochilus—castanez, variolosus. 
Dichelonycha—linearis, Gymnetis—nitida. 
Anomala—varians, minuta, lucicola. Cetonia—inda, herbacea, fulgida, melan- 
Macrodactylus—subspinosus. [The Rose- cholica, sepulcralis. 


chafer. | 


The foregoing species, though varying in size from over an inch 
in length to one fourth of an inch, they resemble each other con- 
siderably in appearance, being heavy, rounded and fleshy. They 
are vegetable-eaters, living mostly on the leaves in the perfect 
state, and most probably on the roots of plants in the larve state. 
Some species of the last named genus delight in the sweet juices 
that flow trom wounded fruit and other trees, and even attack the 
fruit of the peach. 


BUPRESTIDA., 


These beetles are often brilliantly colored, of a coppery luster, 
or black, with golden spots or lines. They are of medium size— 
our species varying from one-eighth to three-fourths of an inch in 
length. They are of a long oval in outline, obtuse before and ta- 
pering behind, The head is sunk to the eyes in the fore-part of 
the thorax. They are frequently seen on the trunks and limbs of 


118 


trees, and on flowers, during the warm part of the day when the 
sun is shining. Their larvee are wood-borers; and frequently do 
considerable injury to our forest and other trees, by boring into 
their trunks. The larvee may generally be recognized by the great 
enlargement of the segment next the head. Dr. Harris tells us 
that some of these beetles eat leaves and flowers. The 2. divari- 
cata, of Say, that attacks the wild, and, also, the garden cherry 
and the peach trees, is found in our State, as well as a number of 
other injurious species. 


Acmaeodera—tubulus. Oxypteris—longipes. 
Stenurus—divaricata, (cherry-borer;) lu- Trachypteris—fulvoguttata. 

rida, baltimor ‘ nsis. Agrilus—bilineatus, rufficollis, lateralis. 
Chalcophora—Virg.nica, liberta. Brachys—tessellata. 
Buprestis—aurulenta. Metonius—ovatus. 


_ Chrysobothris—femorata. 


EUCNEMIDA. 


The insects of this family are similar in form and habits to the 
following, (Z’laterid@,) except that they do not possess the power 
of leaping. The only species I have the name of is: 
Eucnemis—ameenicornis. 


ELATERIDA. 


The insects of this family are well known by the faculty they 
have of throwing themselves upwards with a jerk, when laid on 
their backs, They are called “spring-beetles,” “jumping-jacks,” 
etc. They are generally of along, slender form, tapering behind, 
rather blunt before. The head is sunk to the eyes im the fore-part 
of the thorax. The larvee of these insects are long and slender, 
and somewhat cylindrical, with the terminal segments generally a 
dusky color. They (/arve) live upon wood and roots, and are 
found under the bark of trees and at the decaying roots of trees 
and stumps. Some of these are very destructive to vegetables, 
eating their roots, and thus destroying them. The beetles, during 
summer, may be found on trees, especially the hickory and oak. 


Hemicrepidius—memnonius. Limonius—cylindriformis, quereinus, hir- 
Monocerepidius—lobatus, vespertina. ticollis. 

Cratonychus—breyicollis, communis. Cardiophorus—cardisce. 
Perothops—mucidus. Elater-——rubricollis, piceus. 
Adelocera—auripilis. Cryptohypnus—dorsalis, bellus. 


Alaus—oculatus. [A very common large Corymbites—micans, uppressifrons. 
species, with two large eye-like spots on Agriotes—pubescens, 
the thorax. ] Dalophius—pauper. 
Athous—cucullatus, melanothalmus. 


RHIPICERID&. 
Having branched antenne. 


Zenoa—picea. 
ATOPIDA, 


I am unacquainted with these. 


Ptilodactyla—elaterisea. 


114 


LYCIDA. 


A family that approaches the following, containing insects re- 
sembling the male ylow-worm. Larve are said to reside under the 
bark of trees: 


Dictyoptera—perfaceta. 
Digrupha—reticulata, terminalis. 


LAMPYRID&A. 


These insects are of an elongate, oval form. It is among these 
we find the celebrated glow-worm. The body is of a soft consist- 
ence; dusky, reddish and yellow colors prevail. ‘The larvee,”’ Mr. 
Westwood says, “feed upon the bodies of snails, and other terres- 
trial molluscous animals. The perfect insects I have generally 
found on the leaves and flowers of plants, and the Chauliognathi 
Ihave taken in great abundance on the yucca, (Eve’s-needle,) when 
in flower, also on the caraway, in bloom. Whether they injure 
the plants or not, I am unable to say, but think not. 


Lucernuta—atra. atus. 

Ellychnia—corrusea, lacustris. Silis—bidentata. 

Photinus—pyralis. Telephorus—bilineatus, impressus, caro- 
Pyractomena—angulata, linus, excavatus, scitulus. 
Photuris—pensylvanicica, Podabrus—tomentosus. 


Chauliognathus—pensylvanicus, margin- 


MALACHIIDA. 


Similar in habits to the last family ; live, as do some of the last 
named species of that family, on other insects. Body very soft. 


Collops—4-maculatus, bimaculata. 
Anthocomus—terminalis, literalis. 


CLERID 4. 


This family is composed of small and medium sized insects, gen- 
erally long, slender, and sub-cylindrical. The Illinois species are 
generally of a deep blue color, ornamented with bright spots of 
other colors. The body is much firmer and harder than the pre- 
ceding family. They frequent flowers and low plants. Some are 
found under the bark of old trees and logs, in which latter situation 
they pass their larvee state. -Our species: 


Trichodes—nuttalli. Phyllobenus—dislocatus. 
Clerus—ichneumoneus, rosenarius, nigri- Ichnea—laticornis. 

pes, dubius, undulatus. Enoplium—pilosum. 
Thaneroclerus—sanquineus. Necrobia—rufiper, violaceus. 


Hydnocera—pallipennis. 
PTINIDZ. 


These insects have the thorax bent down, so as to bring the head 
under the breast. They live, during the larva state, in old stumps, 
palings, furniture, ete., which they perforate with round holes, in 
every direction, casting out at the entrance their borings, which 
look like fine saw-dust or powder. The hardest, dry hickory, ap- 


115 


pears a favorite with them. It is to this family the “death watch” 
belongs, which often sends terror to the heart of the superstitious. 
Among these are some species which are said to attack our fruit 
trees. [Illinois species: 

Bostrichus—aspericollis. [Apate. ] Anobium—abesum. [Larva is a death 


Apate—basilaris, fur, 4-maculatus. watch. } 
Xyletinus—sericens. 


RHYSODID. 
Our only species, of which I know nothing, is, 
Rhysodides—sculptiles. 
SCOLYTIDE. 


The insects of this family have the body nearly cylindrical, ob- 
tuse before and behind, and, are generally, of some shade of brown. 
The head is rounded, sunk pretty deeply in the fore-part of the 
thorax, and does not end in asnout. In the larva state they are 
very destructive to forest and other trees. They bore through the 
bark, to the wood, where they traverse the surface of the main 
wood in various directions ; thus causing the bark to loosen ; and 
by this means the tree is finally destroyed. They are generally o1 
small size. 

Scolytus—pyri. 
Tornicus—xylographus ? 

We also have a number of other species of this family, belonging 
to the genera, Platypus, Tornicus, Hylesinus, Hylurgus, etc., which 
have not been determined. I think it is by one or more spe- 
cies of this family that our shade trees are so often destroyed. 


CURCULIONID. 


This family, which contains a vast number of species, is too well 
known by our fruit growers to need comment from me. Scarcely 
a plum tree is planted but they find it; nuts, leaves, grains, and al- 
most every kind of fruit and seed are subject to their attack. But 
as I desire, at some future day, when I have gathered more facts, 
and determined more of our species, to write an article on this 
family, I will not attempt now to descend into particulars. The 
following Illinois species have been determined : 


Dryaphthorus—corticales. Maedalinus—armicollis. 
Sitophilus—eranarius, [grain weevil,] ary- Pissodes—nemorensis. 

zee, [rice weevil. | Sixus—concavus, musculus. 
Sphenophorus—13-punctatus, coriosus, | Hylobuis—pales. 

cinereus. Arrhenodes—septentronis. 
Conotrachelus—nenurHar. [The “curcu- Apion—sayi. 

lio.” } Ithycerus—curculionoides. 
Mononychus—vulpeculus. Rhynchites—bicolor, eneus. 
Cryptorhynchus—foyeolatus, luctuosus. Attelabus—nigripes. 
Centrinus—scutellumalbum. Cratoparis—lunatus. 
Baridius—trinotatus. Bruchus—crategi, pisi, [pea-bug,] mus- 
Balaninus—nasicus. [Hazelnut weevil.] culus. 


Anthonomus—signatus. 


116 


CERAMBYCIDA. 


This is the family of “‘wood-borers.” The beetles are sometimes 
called long-horned or capricorn-beetles, from their long antenne. 
The antenne are long and regularly tapering, and generally curved 
likethe horns of a goat. The body is oblong, sub-cylindrical, some- 
what flattened above, and tapering behind. The thorax is either 
quadrate or barrel-shaped, and narrower than the wing covers. 
The beetles, during the daytime, remain on the trees and among 
the leaves, but come forth and fly about at night. They deposit 
their eggs in the chinks and crevices of the bark of trees, into which 
the larvze bore, as soon as hatched. The hardest wood will not 
turn them; but they continue to bore until ready to be transformed 
into the perfect insect. Some species of this family are far too 
well known to our fruit growers. These insects vary in size, from 
the fifth to one and a half inches in length. Some are of a brown 
color; others ornamented with black and yellow spots or stripes ; 
others, again, are blue or violet. Those known to inhabit Illinois, 
are : 
Paranda—brunnea? ? 

mistake, yet give it. | 
Orthosoma—cylindricum. 
Prionus—inbricornis. 


Purpuricenus—humeralis, axillaris. 
Stenocerus—longipes. 


[I fear this is a Graphisurus—pusillus, fasciatus. 
Aedilis—obsoletus. 
Leptostylus—aculiferus, macula, alpha. 
Hyperplatys—maculatus. 
Desmiphora—tomentosa. 
Monohammus—dentator, confusor, scutel- 
Eburia—quadrigeminata. latus, pulverulentus, tigrinus, pulcher. 
Chion—garganicum. Plectodera—scalator. 
Elaphidion—atomaria, rufulum, vicinum, Tetraopes—tornator, 5-maculatus, femo- 
villosum, parallelum, ratus. 
Criscephalus—agrestis. Dorcaschema—nigram. 
Asemuni—meestum. Anzrea—calearata, mutica. 
Hylotrupes—bajulus. Compside—tridentata, lateralis. 
Arhopalus—fulminans. Saperda—candida, (dwwittata, Say.,) [the 
Callidum—ligneum, antennatum, amc- borer;] vestita, concolor, discoidea. 
num, varium. Atimia—confusa. 
Phymatodes—yvyariabilis. Stenosoma—sordida. 
Physocnemum—brevilineum. Oberea—tripunctata, schaumii. 
Eriphus—suturalis. Distenia—undata. 


Clytus—speciosus, nobilis, flexuosus, ery- 
throcephalus, sagittatus, campestris, 
caprea, hamatus, undulatus, superno- 


Desmocerus—cyaneus. 
Toxotus—decoloratus. 
Pachyta—cyanipennis. 


tatus, ruricola. 
Cyrtophorus—verrucosus. 
Euderees—picipes. 
Stizocera—unicolor. 
Stenopterus—sanguinicollis, rufus. 
Molorchus—mellitus. 
Acanthoderes—decipiens, 


Acmops—proteus. 
Strangalia—luteicornis, bicolor, elegans. 
Leptura—canadensis, erythroptera, rubri- 
ca, vittata, vagans, sinuata. 
Trigonarthris—proxima. 
Anoplodera—4-vittata. 


This family, as given above, which follows the Melsheimer Cat- 
alogue, includes, also, the families Prionidw, and Lepturide, as 
given in Westwood’s ‘“Modern Classification.” 


CHRYSOMELIDA. 


This family includes several groups of species differing consid- 
erably in several respects, and is, by many Entomologists, divided 


— ee ae 


117 


into several distinct families. The name signifies golden-beetle, 
which has been given on account of the brilliant metallic colors 
with which many of the species are ornamented. Most of the 
species are leat-eaters, and, consequently, injurious to plants, and 
especially to cultivated vegetables. The species are generally of 
small size, some being quite minute. 

Orsodacna—ruficollis. Hemonia—melsheimeri. 
Donacia—proxima, lucida, piscatrix, cu- Lema—trilineata, sexpunctata. 

prea. 

The foregoing species belong to the family Crioceridee, as lim- 
ited by Westwood, who is followed by Harris. The hind legs, in 
some ofthe species, have the thighs much thickened and enlarged. 
Harris gives them the name of ‘oblong leaf-beetles.” The Z. tri- 
lineata injure potato plants, by eating holes in the. leaves. 


Odontota—scapularis, nigrita, suturalis, | Cephaloleia—metallica. 
Uroplata—inzqualis, rosea. 

These are small insects, sometimes collected into a family, called 
Hispide. They mine the leaves of apple and other trees and 
plants. 

Chelymorpha—cribraria. C optocycla—aurichaleea, bivittata. [These 
Deloyala—signifer, clavata. two are the species that attack the leaves 
of the sweet potato. ] 

These species belong to the family Casszdide, as limited by 
Westwood. The larvee have the peculiar habit of carrying a shield 
over their backs, which they can raise or lower, by means of their 
tail. 


Galeruca—saggitaria, gelatinaria, notata, (dipodes—pilosa. 


tuberculata, decorata. Graptodera—chalybea, exapta. 
Cerotoma—caminea. Disonycha—alternata, collaris, subplicata. 
Diabrotica—vittata, (ceucumber-beetle,)12- Crepidodera—ery thropus. 

punctata. Phyllotreta—striolata. 
Phyllobrotica—discoidea. Thyamis—testacea. 


(Edionychis—petaurista, thoracica, vians, Psylliodes—denticulata. 

miniata. 

Most of these belong to the tribe of flea-beetles, (Galerucidee,) so 
named on account of their small size and leaping powers. They 
attack the leaves of vegetables, especially the crucifera. 


Labidomera—trimaculate. Hetaraspis—curtipes. 
Polygramnua—10-lineata. Glyptoscelis—barbatus. 
Calligrapha—Philadelphiea, decipiens, bigs- Myochrous—squamosus. 

byana. Chlamys—assimilis. 
Chrysomela—auripennis, costa, rimilis, ele- Exema—gibber. 

gans. Clythra—obsita. 
Melasoma—scripta, interrupta, Babia—quadriguttata. 
Gastrophysa—czruleipennis. Coscinoptera—dominicana. 
Helodes—trivittata. Pachybrachis—hbivittatus, luridus, infaus- 
Calospis—strigosa. tus, abdominalis, pubescens. 
Noda—purvula. Monachus—saponatus. 
Metachroma—4-notata, infuscato, canella. Cryptocephalus—mutabilis, venustus, orna- 
Bromius—vitis. tus, 4-maculatus, auratus. 


Chrysochus—anratus. 


118 


These insects are collected, by some writers, into the restricted 
family, Chrysomelide. Some of the species are clothed in beauti- 
ful metallic colors, and feed on the leaves of various weeds, and 
sometimes on useful vegetables. Some species feed on our com- 
mon knot-weed; another on the leaves of the dog’s-bane. 


COCCINELLID&. 


This is the Lady-bug or Lady-bird family, so well known on ac- 
count of their abundance and their beautiful colors. They are 
distinguished by the hemispherical and convex form of the body. 
They are probably the most useful insects to man that belong to 
the order, rendering him a great benefit, by destroying myriads of 
plant-lice. Their eggs are deposited in the midst of the plant-lice, 
upon which the larvee commence feeding as soon as hatched. 

The prevailing colors are red and yellow, with black spots; but 
this is sometimes reversed, and we find some species that are 
black, with red or yellow spots: 

Illinois species : 

Hippodamia—13-punctatum, convergens, Chilocorus—bivulnerus, cacti. 

glacialis, parenthesis, maculata. Exochomus—tripustulatus, 
Coccinella—bipunctata, venusta, tricuspis, Brachyacantha—ursina. 

novemnotata, munda, normata, multi- Scymnus——Americanus. 

guttata. Epilachna—borealis. 


Mysia—pullata, 15-punctata. Sacium—fasciatus. 
Psyllobora—20-maculata. 


ENDOMYCHID#. 


This family is composed of species similarly colored to the lady- 
birds, though they are more oblong in outline. They subsist chiefly 
on boleti and fungi. 


Endomychus—hbiguttatus. Phymaphora—pulchella. 
Lycoperdina—lineata. 


TENEBRIONIDS. 


This family is composed of insects mostly of a deep black color ; 
body generally oblong or ovate, and somewhat depressed, though 
not flat. They mostly inhabit dark places, such as cellars, stables, 
pantries, and damp situations, from which the light is excluded. 
A common large Illinois species frequently enters the house at 
night, in company with species of Carabidze, and may be taken for 
one of that family. Some feed upon and do much damage to meal, 
flour, bran and breadstuff, baked and unbaked; others live on bo- 
leti and similar vegetable substances; while others appear to fre- 
quent animal excrements or decaying animal substances. Some 
are found under stones, planks, and around houses, mills, ete. 


Blapstinus—interruptus. Platydema—Americana, ruficornis, bifas- 
Opatrinus—notus. ciatus. 


Oplocephala—bicornis, viridipennis, exca- Diaperis—hydni. 
vata. Crymodes—discicollis. 


119 


Uloma—culinaris, impressa, ferruginea. Meracantha—canadensis. 


Tenebris—molitor, obscura. Helops—micans, tenebrioides, 
Centronipus—calcaratus. Penthe—obliquata, pimelia. 
Iphthinus—Pensylvanicus, ulpis, saperdoi- Allecula—obscura. 

des, femoratus. Mycetochores—binatata. 
Upis—ceramboides. Cistela—fuscipes, sericea. 


Bolitophagus—cornutus. 


Of the above there are several genera that Westwood and others 
have placed in other families. Thus, Diaperis in Dzaperide, found 
in boleti, fungi, under bark, ete; Helops in Helopzde, found on 
flowers, under the bark of trees, etc.; Cistela in Cistelidw, the 
larvee of which live in rotten wood. The following family, al- 
though separated in the Melsheimer Catalogue, which I am fol- 
lowing in my arrangement and nomenclature, is closely allied in 
habits to the foregoing. 


MELANDRYIDA, 


Our species are: 


Mclandrya—striata. Direeea—4-maculatus. 
Phaiona—umbrina. Eustrophus—bicolor, tomentosus. 
Serropalpus—substriatus. 


MORDELLID-E. 


This is a family composed of singular hump-back insects, with 
heads bent under the breast, and deep body, tapering to a point 
behind. They frequent flowers and plants, and, when alarmed, 
tuck their heads under their breasts and drop totheground. They 
are generally of small size: 


Anthobus—trifasciata. Ripiphorus—dimidiatus. 
Mordella—oculata, melena, marginata. 


MELOID4. 


This is the blister-fly family. It also contains the potato-bug, 
that does so much damage by destroying the plants of our Irish 
potatoes. Although species considerably differing from these are 
gathered into this family, yet from the well known potato bug the 
characters of the family may be gathered. The deloe angusticollis 
is a singular insect, found in the fall, along the warm fence cor- 
ners, under the grass. The females, with immense swollen abdo- 
mens, which the warped wings but partially cover. They are a 
deep blue-black color; and from the joints oozes a yellow acrid 
fluid. 


Horia—sanguinipennis. Cantharis—zenea, engelmanii. 
Meloe—augusticollis. : Zonitis—hilineatea. 
Epicanta—vittata, marginata, atrata, cine- Cepaloon—lepturides. 

rea. Nacerdes—melanura. 


The five following families, not being important in an agricultu- 
ral point of view, and my knowledge of them being very limited, 
I will givea list of the Illinois species, so far as they have been de- 
termined, without further comment. 


120 


LAGRIDZ. 
Statyra—znea. 
PYROCHROIDA. 
Pyrochroa—flabellata, femoralis. 
SALPINGIDZ. 
Salpingus—virescens. 
ANTHICIDA. 


Notoxus—anchora, monodon, bicolor, bifasciatus. 
Anthicus—basilaris, elegans, cervinus. 


PSELAPHID&. 


Tyrus—humeralis. Batrisus—globosus. 
Bryaxis—dentata, hematica, longula. 


STAPHYLINIDA. 


The insects of this family are easily distinguished by their short 
elytra or wing-covers, which generally extend over but a small por- 
tion of the abdomen. They are generally of a long, narrow, de- 
pressed form. They run and fly with great agility ; are voracious, 
preying upon decaying animal and vegetable matters. The species 
of our State are generally of small size, seldom exceeding three- 
fourths of an inch in length, and mostly less than one-fourth of an 
inch long. J have seen myriads of a small species issue from the 
ground of a warm summer evening and swarm in the air, when 
they were taken for gnats. 

Tachinus—fimbriatus. Quedius—laticollis. 
Staphylinus—villosus, cingulatus, vulpinus, Oxyporus—vittatus. 

maculosus, cinnamopterus, violaceus, to- Cryptobium—badium, bicolor. 

mentosus. Pederus—littorarius. 
Philonthus—cyanipennis, Baltimoriensis. Apocellus—sphericollis. 

With these I close the list of Illinois Coleoptera. And here it 
becomes my duty to say that this list is made up from lists furnish- 
ed me by Dr. Helmuth, of Chicago; Dr. Walsh, of Rock Island; 
Dr. E. Brendel, of Menard county, and the Evanston Institution, 
including a list of my own collection. The list furnished by Dr. 
Helmuth includes fully three-fourths of this entire list. The other 
lists, as well as my own, go over much of the same ground, each 
including from wo to four hundred species. 


I will here present a short list ot species belonging to the order 
Hemiptera, which I have determined. Although comprising but a 
small portion of the species found in Illinois, belonging to this or- 
der, yet I deem it best to present it, in order to make a commence- 
ment of a Catalogue. I shall not, in this list, make any attempt to 
be systematic, as I have not the time at present to do so. 


121 


Galgupha—maruta. Nob. Nov. sp. Macropus—leucopteius. Fitch. [Chinch- 
Pentatoma—(Catostyrax) eynica. Say. bug. | 

vi (Mormidea) augur. Say. Myodoch—opetilata. Say. 

ss ( Asopus ) sanguinipennis— Berytus—(Neides) spinosus. Say. 

Nob. Nov. sp. Rhinuchus—(Anisosceles) nasulus. Say. 
Pentatoma—calceata. Say. Capsus—oblineatus. Say. 

tf rufescens. Nob. Nov. sp. RS 4-vittatus. Say. 

s punctipes, No.1. Say. Galgulus—oculatus. Fabr. 

sf punctipes, No. 2. Say. Gerris—m-rginatus. Say. 

4 bimaculata. Nob. Noy. sp. Cieada—septemdecem. Linn. 
Hymenareys—perpunetata. Serv. x pruinosa. Say. 
Coreus—tristis. Say. cs parvula. Say. 

“ (Acanthocoris) ¢ galeator. Fabr. Membracis—camelus. Fabr. 
Reduvius—raptatorius. ‘Say. Sy (Miler) galeator. Fabr. 

se erassipes. Fabr. Cereopis—quadrangularis. Say. 

fe acuminatus. Say. Tettigonia—8-lineata. Say. 
Aradus—acutus. Say. x quadrivittata. Say. 
Lygzeus—tercicus. Fabr. Flata—(Acanonia) conica. Say, 
Pamera—constricta. Say. Jassus—subbifasciatus. Say. 

% Nodosa. Say. Fulgora—sulcipes. Say. 


The species marked above as new species are some that I named 
and described in a paper presented to the Chicago Academy of 
Sciences. 

Before concluding these notes, I may add that since the last vol- 
ume of the Agricultural Transactions of Illinois was issued T have 
ascertained several new species of Orthoptera, two of which have 
been named by Mr. Uhler, of Baltimore ; one by myself; the oth- 
ers yet remain unnamed. Dut I will not, attempt to present any 
thing in regard to them, until I have gathered further facts re- 
specting their habits and transformations. I will also add that I 
desire, during the coming summer, to make as large a collection as 
possible of our erasshoppers, and would be glad to receive from each 
county in the State collections, either pinned or dropped in alco- 
hol, the collector’s name and locality accompanying those sent; 
also any information in regard to their habits, injuries, history, etc., 
will be thankfully received, as I desire to prepare a full report on 
our species, their habits, injuries, the remedies, ete., which will 
be handed over to the Agricultural Society, if desired. 


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NOTES ON OTHER SPECIES. 


153 


Otisorex platyrhinus, Dekay, (Sorex p., Wagner,) of Mr, Ken- 
nicott’s list, I have not placed in the list, as I have some doubts 
about it being a native of Illinois. Yet it is not impossible Mr. 
Kennicott is correct, though I think the species referred to is, &. 
cooperit. 

Sorex richardsonii, and S. Hoyt, may possibly be found within 
our State. 

The following species may also be found in the State : 

Blarina Carolinensis. 

Sciurus Vulpinus. 

Reithrodon Humilis? 

The Arvicola hirsutus, of Mr. Kennicott’s first list, is probably A. 
riparia. As to his Arvicola oneida, (Dekay,) I can say nothing. 
Also, as to Putorius agilis, (Aud. and Bach.,) in his list, I can say 
nothing. Same in regard to Sczwrus cinereus. 

I have preferred following closely the descriptions of Dr. Baird, 
even when the specimens were before me, which I have done 
throughout with but little change. 


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PLAN FOR A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY. 


By Cyrus Tuomas, of Murphysboro, Illinois. 


All the work done by the Society, and every step taken, should 
be done in such a manner that it will not be necessary to go over 
the same ground the second time. But in order to do this, it is 
necessary to have some plan, some method of operating. There- 
fore, I, as an humble member of the Society, propose the following 
for the consideration of the Society: 

First —in regard to our flora. 

The Phenogamic plants of Illinois having been pretty thorough- 
ly determined by our Western botanists, but little remains to be 
done so far as the determining of species is concerned. Never- 
theless, this field is by no means finished; enough for more than 
one year’s work remains for our most active botanists. Let the 
catalogue for the State be corrected and completed during the 
year; and in doing this, let the introduced plants be ascertained 
and so marked in the catalogue. Let the suite of specimens at the 
Museum be completed, care being taken to furnish such specimens 
as exhibit most distinctly the specific characteristics. 

Let another part of the next year’s work be to determine the 
geographical range of our trees and some of the other most impor- 
tant plants. The Society during its present session making out a 
list tor that purpose. And, also, to assist in this part of the work, 
I would suggest that the Society, during the present session, di- 
vide the State into districts, defining accurately the boundary of 
each. Let there be at least four, and probably tive or six would be 
better. For instance: 1st—The Northwest—that part of the State 
west and northwest of the Illinois river. 2d—The North—that 
part east of the Llinois river and north of Bloomington. 8d—The 
Central—that part south of Bloomington and north of the Ohio 
and Mississippi Railroad. 4th—The South—Egypt. 

And at the same time this should not interfere with the general 
division into prairie and tember, which runs through all. If this 
districting is done it will answer for both plants and animals. And 
although an artificial arrangement, which will give way to such divi- 
sions as Nature has established, yet it will answer a good purpose 


136 


in recording facts to be used in ascertaining Nature’s boundaries 

and for future explorers. 

And as another part of the work for the coming year, let our 
botanists make a commencement upon the Illinois Cryptogamia. 

Next—as to animals. 

Let the list of mammals be carefully corrected and completed, 
and those not now to be found in the State so marked ; and, as far 
as possible, the time of their departure ascertained. Also, let the 
geographical limits of each species be determined. And it should 
be made a special point this year to place in the Museum a com- 
plete suite of our mammals (male and female,) and, also, askull-of 
each species. 

During the coming year our Ornithologists should get ready 
their catalogue of birds. 

Ichthyology and Herpetology will have to remain among the 
generalities another year. 

Our Conchologists ought to be able during the year to prepare a 
complete catalogue of Illinois Mollusks, and furnish a complete 
suite of shells to the Museum. ‘They can also make a commence- 
ment at determining the geographical distribution of species. 

Crustacea and Arachnida will have to lie over until some one can 
be induced to take hold of them. ; 

As to Insects, I propose that for the next meeting we prepare a 
general catalogue, including all the species in ail the orders that 
have been and that we may be able during the year to determine 
as inhabitants of our State, but that our entomologists take spe- 
cially in charge the list of Coleoptera, and try and render it as full 
as possible by next year. 

Then, summing up, we have before us, for the year ending June, 
1861— 

1. Correcting and completing the catalogue of Illinois Phenoga- 
mia. 

Determining the geographical range (within the State) of our 
trees, and some of our other most important plants, and wheth- 
er they are confined to prairie or timber. 

. Complete the suite of plants in the Museum. 

Correct and complete the catalogue of Illinois Mammals, and 
determine the geographical range of each species. 

Furnish the Museum with specimens of both sexes of each spe- 
cies, and a skuli of each. 

6. Prepare a catalogue of our Birds. 

7. Correct and complete the catalogue of our Shells, and furnish 

the Museum with spccimens of each species. 

8. Prepare a catalogue of all Insects known to inhabit the State, so 

far as determined. 

And besides all this let the general work of gathering and deter- 
mining, in all departments, classes and orders, go on, especial refer- 
ence being had to the early completion of our lists of Reptiles and 
Fishes. 


bo 


st ge 


137 


So much in regard to the Flora and Fauna. Is the ground too 
extensive? Much of the work has already been done, and this is 
proposed in order to clear up and dispose of these branches, that 
our energies may not be expended in traveling over the same 
ground a second time. 

It will also enable us to say to the people at large what particu- 
lar specimens we want; what particular aid we need, ete. And 
then they are more willing to take hold and assist. 

And to complete the plan, specific work should be assigned to 
such members as are willing to undertake it; and to them should 
be sent, first, the map of the specimens gathered in the State—to 
each, those of his particular class or order. And the Society, then, 
should extend to these members such aid, in the way of books, pre- 
servatives, instruments, etc., as possible, in our present weak state. 

And to do this work most profitably, not only to ourselves, but 
the world at large, the Society, at its present session, should direct 
its executive committee to propose to the Smithsonian Institution 
to co-operate with that Institution. 

The members should furnish the Society with alist of the works 
on Natural History they have. The reason is obvious. 

Hoping the Society will consider these things and act according 
to the judgment of those present, I will close. 


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ADDITIONS TO THE FLORA OF ILLINOIS. 


By Dr. Greorce Vasey, of Ringwood, Illinois. 


To Pror. Turner, President of the Illinois Natural History Society: 


Dear Str:—-The question is sometimes asked: What is your 
Natural History Society accomplishing? To answer this inquiry, 
so far as the Department of Botany is concerned, I propose to give 
a list of the additions which have been made to the Flora of’ the 
State, by members of the Society, and to make such remarks 
thereon, as may appear of interest. 

The catalogue of Llinois plants published in the third volume of 
the Transactions of the Illinois Agricultural Society, was prepared 
by I. A. Lapham, Esq., of Milwaukee, partly from personal obser- 
vations made in the State, and partly from the information of 
botanists residing in the State. This catalogue enumerates some 
one thousand and fifty-two species of plants; and, considering the 
means at hand for its preparation, must be considered as remark- 
ably well executed. About this time, an interest was being awa- 
kened among Naturalists, which led tothe organization of the Nat- 
ural History Society. In the next volume of the Transactions of 
the Agricultural Society, are three lists of plants additional to the 
catalogue of Mr. Lapham; one by Dr. F. Brendel of Peoria, one by 
Mr. M. 8. Bebb of Marion county, and one by the present writer. 
There is also, in the same volume, a remarkably full and interest- 
ing article on the Trees and Shrubs of Illinois, by Dr. Brendel. 

I also prepared for the annual meeting of the Natural History 
Society in Jane last, a list of additional species which had come 
under my observation up to that time, and also a list by Dr. S. B. 
Mead of Augusta. This list was subsequently published in the 
Prairie Harmer. Since that time quite a large number of addi- 
tional species have been collected by myself in several excursions 
into different parts of the State. All these various additions I 
now incorporate in the accompanying catalogue. Beside the per- 
sons whose names have been already mentioned, there have been 
several others engaged in observing the vegetation of the localities 
where they reside. So far asis known to me, they are Dr, F. 


140 


Scammon of Chicago, Mr. E. Hall of Athens, Mr. R. K. Slosson 
of Morris, and Dr. O. Everett of Dixon. 

Of the species here enumerated as many as ten are not only ad- 
ditions to the Flora of the State, but are also additions to the Flora 
of the Northern United States, and indeed to that portion of our 
country included in Dr. Gray’s Manual of Botany, which embra- 
ces Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. 

There is no doubt that a full exploration of our State will yet 
present many interesting additions. Many of the plants in the 
following catalogue have been collected by several botanists and 
the plan of the present article will not admit of making reference 
to them by name in each instance. It would also increase the in- 
terest of the article, if the localities of the rare plants could be 
given, together with plain and intelligible descriptions, but this 
must be deferred to a future occasion. The mosses and liverworts 
are not here included. 


CATALOGUE. 


Hepatica acutiloba, D. C. Hypericum ellipticum, Hook. 
Thalictrum dicecum, L. *f adpressum, Barton. 
Ranunculus rhomboidens, Goldie. i dolabriforme, Vent. 
¢ pennsylvanicus, L. ‘ gymnanthemum. 
$f hispidus, Mx. nudiflorum, Mx. 

*Delphinium, consolida, L. Elodea petiolata, Pursh. 
Actea spicata, var. rubra, Mx. *Vaccaria vulgaris, Host. 
Jeffersonia diphylla, Pers. Alsine michauxii, Fenzl. 
Sarracenia purpurea, L. *Stellaria media, L. 
*Paparu somniferum, L. *Cerastium viscosum, L. 
Dicentra canadensis, D. C. $6 oblongifolium, Torr. 
*Nasturtium officinali, R. Br. Sagina apetala, L. 

‘ obtusum, Nutt. “nodosa, Fenzl. 

‘* =~ ginnatum, Nutt. Claytonia caroliniana, Mx. 

¢ sessiliflorum, Nutt. Talinum teretifolium, Pursh. 
Cardamine rhomboide, var. Tor. *Malva sylvestris, L. 
Arabis hirsuta, Scop. *Malva crispa, L. 
Draba micrantha, Nutt. *Hibiscus trionum, L. 
*Camelina sativa, Crantz. Tilia Pubescens, Ait. 
*Sinapis alba, L. *Linum usitatissimum, L,. 
Lepidium intermedium, Gray. Floerka proserpinacoides, Willd. 
Cakile americana, Nutt. Vitis vulpina, L. 
Turritis glabra, L. “¢ indivisa, Willd. 
Viola lanceolata, L. “  pipinnata, T. & G. 
Solea concolor, Ging. Rhamnus alnifolius, L’ Her. 
Ascyrum crux andrea, L. Ceanothus ovalis, Bigelow. 


Hypericum kalmianum, L. Af intermedius. 


141 


Polygala cruciata, L. 
Lupinus perennis, L. 
Trifolium arvense, L. 
*Melilotus alba, Lam. 
*Medicago sativa, L. 
*Medicago lupulina, L. 
Desmodium ciliare, D. C. 
ee 
Lespedeza hista, Ell. 
Vicia caroliniana, Walt. 
** americana, Muh. 
Lathyrus ochroluecus, Hook. 
«palustris, Le 
“ — maritimus, Big. 
Baptisia australis, R. Br. 
Cassia obtusifolia. 
Schrankia uncinata, Willd. 
Prunus pumila, L. 
Geum album, Gmelin. 

‘:. strictam, Ait. 

% , sniflorand, Ph, 

* -macrophyllum, Willd. 
Potentilla paradoxa, Nutt. 

- anserina, L. 

rm palustris, Scop. 
Fragaria vesca, L. 
Rubus strigosus, Mx. 

“  triflorus, Rich. 
*Rubus ideeus. 

Rosa blanda, Ait. 
*Rosa rubiginosa, L. 
Crategus coccinea, L. 
Epilobium angustifolium, i. 
* molle, Torr. 
Oenothera albicaulis, Nutt. 
Gaura filipes, Spach. 
Jussizea repens, L. 
Ludwigia spheerocarpa, Ell. 
Circea ‘alpina, L. 
Myriophyllum verticillatum, L. 
Hippuris vulgaris, L. 
Ribes cynosbati, L. 

“  hirtellum, Mx. 

a missouriense, Nutt. 
Saxifrage pennsylvanica, L. 
Mitella diphylla, L. 
Hamamelis virginica, L. 
Sanicula canadensis, ai 


marilandicum, Boot. 


Sium angustifolium, L. 
*Conium maculatum, L. 
Conio selinum canadense, T.&G 
Eulophus americanus, Nutt. 
Aralia spinosa, L. 
Cornus alterniflora, L. 
“*  eircinata, L’ Her. 
Viburnum lentago, L. 


eS dentatum, L. 
* pubescens, Pursh. 
hi acerifolium, L. 


Galium boreale, L. 

“  concinnum, T. & G 
Fedia radiata, Mx. 
Valeriana edulis, Nutt. 
*Dipsacus sylvestris, Mill. 
*Tussilage farfara, L. 

Aster corymbosus, Ait. 

‘© ptarmicoides, T. & G. 
Solidago stricta, Ait. 
Xanthium spinosum, L. 
Boltonia diffusa. 

*Coreopsis tinctoria, Nutt. 
Tanacetum vulgare, L. 
Artemesia dracunculoides. 
Graphilium uliginosum, L. 
*Cirsium lanceolatum, Scop. 
*Cirsium arvense, Scop. 
*Centaurea cyanus, L. 
Hieracium canadense, Mx. 
Lobelia kalmii, L. 
Campanula rotundifolia, L. 
Vaccinium vacillans, Sol. 

& macrocarpon, Ait. 
Arctostaphylos uvaurse, Sp. 
Andromeda polifolia, L. 
Pyrola elliptica, Nutt. 
Bumelia lycioides, Gaert. 
Lysimachia longifolia, Ph. 
Naumburgia thyrsiflora, R. 
Utricularia gibba, L. 

Rs subulata, L. 
Aphyllon fasciculatum, T. & G. 
Linaria canadensis, Spr. 
*Linaria vulgaris, Mill. 
Pentstemon digitalis, Nutt. 
Mimulus jamesii, Torr. 
Gratiola spheerocarpa, Ell. 


Archangelica atropurpurea, Hoff. Veronica peregrina, L. 


Castilliea sessiliflora, Ph. 
Gerardia setacea, Walt. 
Verbena officinalis, L. 
Cunila Mariana, L. 
Pyenanthemum incanum, Mx. 
Calamintha glabella, var. Gr. 
Scutellaria parvula, Mx. 
Onosmodium carolinianum, D.C. 
Hydrophyllum canadense, L. 
Phacelia bipinnatitida, Mx. 
Phlox maculata, L. 

“© reptans, Mx. 
*Tpomea purpurea, Lam. 
Hydrolea quadrivalvis. 
Gentiana dentosa, Fries. 
Obolaria virginica, L. 
Foresteronia difformis, D. C. 
Asclipias phytolaccoides, Ph. 

o nuttalliana, Torr. 
parviflora, Ph. 
Acerates paniculata. 

43 monocephala, Lap. 
Gonolobus macrophyllus, Mx. 
Fraxinus sambucifolia, Lam. 
Chenopodium urbicum, L. 

3 glaucum, L. 
Coriospermum hyssopifolium. 
* Amarantus hypochondriacus, L. 
*Polygonum orientale, L. 
*Polygonum convolvulus, L. 

aurifolium, L. 
*Fagopyrum esculentum, M. 
Rumex maritimus, L. 

Dirca palustris, L. 
Shepherdia canadensis, N. 
Callitriche verna, L. 
Euphorbia poly gonifolia. 
Ricinus communis, L. 
Ulmus racemosa, Thomas. 

‘¢ ulata, Mx. 

Celtis mississippiensis, Bos. 
Betula alba, var. Spach. 

“¢ papyracea, Ait. 

“¢  pumilia, L. ; 
*Salix babylonica, Tour. 

‘“¢ petiolaris, Smith. 
nigra, Marshall. 
longifolia, Muhl. 
Incida, Muhl. 


‘<4 


74 
“cc 
66 


rostrata, Rich. 
cordata, Muhl. 
eriocephala, Muhl. 
discolor, Muhl. 
candida, Willd. 
pedicellaris, Pursh. 
Populus grandidentata, Mx. 

‘©  monilifera, Ait. 

Pinus banksiana, Lambert. 
“  strobus, L. 
Larix americana, Mx. 
Taxus baccata, var. L. 
Juniperus communis, L. 
Symplocarpus feetidus, Salis, 
Orontium aquaticum, L. 
Sparganium natans, L. 
Peltandra virginica, Raf. 
Naias flexilis, Rosth. 
Potomageton pectinatus, L. 
Triglochin palustre, L. 

i maratimum, var. L. 
Scheuchzeria palustris, L. 
Limnobium spongia, Rich. 
Platanthera, flava, Gray. 

oe lacera, Gray. 
Goodyera pubescens, R. Br. 
Arethusa bulbosa, L. 

Pogonia ophioglossoides, Nutt. 
Aletris farinosa, L. 

Tris Duerinkii. 

Smilax glauca, Walt. 

“ tamnoides, L. 

“ hispida, Muhl. 
Trillium nivale, Riddell. 
Polygonatum gigantum, Deit. 
Smilacina bifolia, Ker. 
Lilium superbum, L. 
Zygadenus glaucus, Nutt. 
Stenanthium angustifolium, Gr 
Tofieldia glutinosa, Willd. 
Juncus balticus, Willd. 

“¢  paradoxus, E, Meyer. 
articulatus? L. 
nodosus, L. 
Eliocharis intermedia, Sch. 
Scirpus planifolius, Muhl. 
Rthynchospora capillacea, Torr. 
Cladium mariscoides, Torr. 
Carix bromoides, Schk. 


T4 


4 
“ce 


Carix chorrdorrhiza, Erhr. 

 limosa, L. 

“ livida, Willd. 
crawei, Dew. 
careyana? Torr, 
Oederi, Khrh. 
filiformis, L. 
comosa, Boot. 
hystricina, Willd. 
cylindrica. 
careyana. 
stenolepis. 

Aira cespitosa, L. 

Agrostis perennans, Tuck. 
Calamagrostis longifolia, Hook. 
bf arenaria. 

Boutelona hirsuta, Lagas. 
Glyceria pallida, Trin. 
Poa serotina, Ehrh. 
Setaria viridis, Beauy. 


This mark [*] indicates that 
ralized. 


ce 


145 


Triticum caninum, L. 
Triticum repens, L. 
Hierochloa borealis, R. & S. 
Panicum anceps, Michx. 
Equisetum limosum, L. 

sé variegatum, Schr. 
Polypodium vulgare, L. 
Struthiopteris germanica, Will. 
Allosurus atropurpureus, G. 
Asplenium ebeneum, Ait. 
Cheilanthes tomentosa, Link. 
Woodsia obtusa, Torr. 
Cystopteris bulbifera, Bern. 
Aspidium thelypteris, Swartz. 

- spinulosum, Swartz. 
goldianum, Hook. 
Osmunda regalis, L. 
Lycopodium lucidulum, Mx. 
Selaginella ruprestris, Spring. 
Chara polyphylla. 


66 


the species is introduced and natu- 


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ir A oe LY 
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i 
hy 


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MUSEUM OF THE ILLINOIS STATE NATURAL 
HISTORY SOCIETY. 


By C. D. Wizzer, of Bloomington, Mlinois. 


[SEE FRONTISPIECE. | 


The State Normal University has been made the depository for 
all collections in the various departments of Natural History which 
may be made under the auspices of the Society, and also tor such 
collections as may be donated. For this purpose, two large halls 
in the University building have been united by an arch, atfording 
a spacious gallery one hundred feet in length and thirty-three feet 
wide. This hall, called the Museum or GroLtoay anp NaturaL 
Hisrory, has been fitted up in the most approved style, from 
plans furnished by Richard H. Holder, Esq., of Bloomington, who 
visited the Museums of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, 
the Boston Academy, and the Salem Museum. The following is 
a brief outline of the plan adopted : 

Arranged along the floor, in front, near the windows, are twelve 
glass structures or houses, each four feet by eight feet and ten feet 
high, furnished with shelves and bases, for the department of Or- 
nithology. In these structures, which are of pure French glass, 
the birds are arranged in families, each with its name and habitat. 
At present they are chiefly occupied by the Birds of Illinois. 

Acioss an aisle, four feet in width, are placed twelve structures, 
made also of plate glass, corresponding with the structures for 
Birds. . These are in the form of parallelograms, each three feet 
by twelve feet, and surmounted by a glass show case of the same 
dimensions and eight inches in depth. In the lower spaces are 
placed specimens of our coal flora, such as Lepidodendra, Sigill- 
aria, etc., which are too large for shelves. These, as they are all 
of one geological epoch, are grouped with reference to the localities 


—16 


146 


whence they were taken. The glass show cases above are devoted 
to carboniferous fossils and shells. 

In the rear of the parallelograms is an extended bureau of draw- 
ers, divided into two sections, at the middle of the room. Each 
division contains four hundred and eighty drawers, and each drawer 
is fifteen by eighteen inches and three inches in depth, furnished 
with a glass cover, and arranged in series of ten; every two series, 
or twenty drawers, being protected by folding doors. These are 
devoted to Botany and Entomology. 

Above this range of drawers, along the wall, are sections of com- 
mon shelves, provided with folding doors, designed to contain fos- 
sils, ores, minerals and crystals. ‘he fossils are to be arranged in 
the order of the geological formation or epoch which they illustrate. 
At present they are grouped according to the localities in the State 
where they are found. 

In the southern division of the Museum are placed the Minerals 
of Illinois and the adjacent states, presenting a typical view of the 
mineral wealth of the Mississippi Valley, and designed to illustrate 
what is termed Economical Geology. For example: all the va- 
rieties of Iron ore, with samples of every process of its manufac- 
ture, are arranged by themselves; Lead, its ores and oxides; also, 
Copper; Coal, its varieties and products; Soils, with accompanying 
analyses, ete., etc. The corresponding northern section is occupied 
by a collection of Crystals, arranged according to the basis of each 
order, viz: Carbonates, Silicates, etc. Each specimen will be 
accompanied with its specific name and the name of the locality, 
also of the person donating the same to the Society. 

A space above these sections, in both divisions, is devoted to such 
collections as are preserved in alcohol, viz: Reptiles, Fishes, Crus- 
tacea, ete. 

A series of paintings, by Bryant, illustrating the principal geo- 
logical epochs, are placed in line at the top of the last described 
sections, and, when finished, will occupy the entire length of the 
Museum. Of this series four are now complete. 

The library cases, two at each end of the Museum, are provided 
for the scientific works, reports and papers of the Society. 

The principal design of the Society, in regard to this general 
collection of Natural History, is to furnish the greatest possible 
number of Object Lessons in each department, and so arrange the 
objects or specimens that they will convey to the student or ob- 
server a correct view of the order or philosophy of Nature; in 
short, to make of the Museum a well arranged volume, whose illus- 
trations, indicating the order of creation, were prepared by the 
Great Artist, who laid the foundations of the earth. 

Valuable collections have been received from the following per- 
sons: J.T. Gulick, Sandwich Islands; P. A. Chadbourne, Massa- 
chusetts; J. W. J. Culton, Michigan; C. P. Williams, Michigan ; 
William Hovey, Michigan; Rev. E. R. Beadle, Hartford, Connec- 
tieut; F. D. Fyler, Winsted, Connecticut; E.J. Pickett, Rochester, 


147 


New York; Joseph Even, Morris, Illinois; A. W. Nason, St. 
Johns; C. A. Montross, Centralia; Jasper Johnson, Vienna; Miss 
Katie A. Thompson, Vienna; Cyrus Thomas, Murphysboro; Dr. 
M. Davis, Oswego; William H. Allen, Grafton; F..A. McDonald, 
Grafton; William McAdams, Jerseyville; Drs. Bennett & Chaffee, 
Alton; Capt. E. H. Beebe, Galena; Dr. Oliver Everett, Dixon; 
A. M. Gow, Dixon; Rev. A. H. Conant, Rockford; T. J. Willever, 
Bloomington; Dr. J. W. Velie, Rock Island; Dr. Whittlesey, 
Galva; R ush Emery, Hamilton ; "Dr. William H. Githens, Hamil: 
ton; Daniel Gordon, Moline; Geor ge Shockey, Iowa; Miss Mar- 
tha. Coggeshall, Nantucket; Prof. J. H. McChesney, Chicago ; 
John P. Reynolds, Springfield ; A. H. Worthen, Springfield ; M. 
S. Bebb, Springfield; E. Hall, Athens; J. W. Powell, Wheaton ; 
Dr. E. RB. Roe, U. D. Eddy, H.W. Boyd, and H. B. Cole, Bloom- 
ington. 

“At the meeting of the Society, July 3d, R. H. Holder presented 
his entire collection of the Birds of Illinois. A similar donation 

was made by Dr. George Vasey, of the Flora of Llinois, consist- 
ing of nearly fourteen “hundred species, collected by him during 
the last ten years. Rev. Dr. Eddy, of Bloomington, presented a 
cabinet of fossils and specimens, illustrating the “Drift. Mr. Bry- 
ant donated to the Society the collection of paintings already refer- 
red to. Mr. Wilber presented a suite of western minerals and 
fossils. B.D. Walsh and Cyrus Thomas have presented valuable 
collections of insects. The Railroad and Express companies of 
the State, with a liberality never exceeded, have also contributed 
greatly to the present success. 

The Museum above described can be referred to only as a begin- 
ning. Three years of labor have been devoted to it: It will pros- 
per in proportion as it advances the educational interests of the 
State. Its founders hope for success upon no other basis. 

It will be dedicated, with appropriate exercises, as a FREE OFFER- 
ING TO THE CITIZENS AND scHooLs of Illinois, on Wednesday, De- 
cember 25th, 1861. 


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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION IN ILLINOIS. 


By Bens. D. Watsu, Esq., Rock Island, Ill. 


“Tnsects are little contemptible vermin, unworthy the notice of 
any grown man.” Such is the popular opinion on the subject. 
Let us see if it will stand the test of a rigorous examination. 

The wheat crop of the State of Lllinois, according to the United 
States census, was, in round numbers, three and one-third million 
bushels in 1839-40, and nine and one-third million bushelsin 1849-50. 
In 1859-60, at the same rate of increase, it would be over twenty- 
six million bushels, and there is no doubt but that—owing to the 
extraordinary abundance of all our harvests—it this year very 
largely exceeds that amount. We may safely assume twenty-five 
million bushels as what would have been a tair average crop for 
the season of 1861. 

It is only two years since the entire wheat crop of the State was 
so damaged by the chinch-bug that a great deal of it was not cut at 
all, and a great deal that was cut barely paid for the harvesting. 
Scarcely a year elapses but what more or less damage is done to 
it by this insect, and by the Hessian-fly and the wheat midge. A 
large breadth of winter wheat, which is commonly supposed to be 
“winter-killed,” is in reality killed by the Hessian-fly ; and there 
may be, and probably are, many other insects which depredate 
upon this crop, but whose habits have not yet fallen under the no- 
tice of entomologists. Eleven bushels to the acre, according to the 
census, was the average produce in this State in 1849-50. It cannot 
possibly be less than twenty bushels in 1861. What is the cause 
of this enormous discrepancy? It cannot be that the land is tired 
of wheat, for if it wastired in’50, it must be still worse tired in ’60. 
It cannot be attributed to improved methods of cultivation, though 
this, no doubt, has had some influence, for, in that case, the crop of 
each successive year would be gradually larger and larger. Neither 
can we attribute it to the weather, for the only thing specially re- 
markable about the season of ’60 was the very early plowing time, 
and springs equally early must be in the recollection of every old 


150 


settler, which were followed by quite méderate harvests. The only 
remaining cause to which it is possible to attribute the luxuriant 
wheat crop of ’60, is the almost entire absence ot noxious insects. 
We had no chinch-bug, no Hessian-fly, and, so far as I am aware, 
but a single case of wheat midge, in one of our central counties. 
The difference, therefore, between eleven and twenty bushels per 
acre, for the year which has just elapsed, must be principally attri- 
buted to the absence of these “little contemptible vermin, which 
are beneath the notice of any grown man.” Now it was shown 
before, that at the rate of eleven bushels per acre, twenty-five mil- 
lion bushels would be a fair average crop tor 1860. At the rate of 
twenty bushels per acre, it must be over forty-five million bushels. 
Whence we arrive at the astounding conclusion, that in one single 
year the State saves upon one single crop the value of twenty mil- 
lion bushels of wheat, through the absence of certain tiny creatures, 
not one of which is so big as a grain of rice. 

Taking the average of years, we may safely assume that a fifth 
part of the wheat crop—or, which is the same thing, a quantity 
equal to one-fourth of what we actually do harvest—is destroyed by 
insects. Even at the low price, therefore, of seventy-five cents per 
bushel, we have over four and a half million dollars’ worth of wheat 
annually destroyed by “little vermin which it is not worth our while 
to notice.” But this is not all. Other crops are damaged by other 
insects, though not generally to so ruinous an extent; so that we 
cannot put the whole annual damage done by insects to the State 
of Illinois at less than TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS. 

These facts may appear trite and obvious to some, but that they 
cannot possibly be generally realized by our citizens is proved by 
the very circumstances under which I am now writing. Here is a 
great and wealthy State, sustaining annually a loss of twenty mil- 
lion dollars, and to him who furnishes the best suggestions for di- 
minishing this loss is offered the sum of twenty-five dollars. It is 
exactly as if a manufacturer, who was annually losing eight thou- 
sand dollars through the dishonesty of his hired men, was to offer 
to any detective officer who could put him on the track of the 
rogues the munificent premium of ONE CENT. 

Throughout the whole length and breadth of the United States, 
there is at present but one man—Dr. Asa Fitch, the State Entomol- 
ogist of New York—specially enyaged in investigating the habits 
of noxious insects, and experimenting on the best methods of coun- 
terworking them. but the number of noxious insects is enormons, 
and it is beyond the powers of any one man, or any ten men, to at- 
tend to them all. Dr. Fitch has commenced cataloguing and de- 
scribing the noxious insects found in his own State, and they already 
amount to three hundred and sixty, althongh, as he himself says, 
the list is quite incomplete. His five “Reports,” published at the 
expense of the State of New York, contain a vast amount of val- 
uable information, so far as they go. But it so happens that many 
of the noxious insects of Illinois are southern and not northern 


151 


species ; and if we wait until they come under the personal notice 
of northern entomologists, we shall wait a very long time indeed. 

For example, Dr. Fitch tells us that in the whole course of his en- 
tomological career of twenty-five years, he met with but ¢ree chinch- 
bugs in New York; and Dr. Harris was more unfortunate still, for 
in the State of Massachusetts he only found one poor solitary spe- 
cimen up to the day of his death. It would take a good arithme- 
tician to count the chinch-bugs to be found in Illinois 

In the remarks which | am now about to offer, I can make no 
pretension to any special investigation of the habits of the noxious 
insects of Lilinois, and of the most efficient modes of destroying 
each individual species. To do this w ould require a long series of 
laborious observations and experiments, continued through several 
years; and while there are so many unexplor ed fields in science 
open to the student, it is not likely that any man will gratuitously 
devote himself to a matter of dry practical detail, involving no dis- 
covery of new principles, but simply the practical app! ication of 
old and well known discoveries. The days are past—if indeed 
they ever existed—when a Curtius was always to be found to im- 
molate himself for the good of his country. The most that I can 
do, will be to develop g ceneral views of the Natural Histor y of In- 
sects—some of them as old as the hills, some, I believe, original— 
and to suggest methods by which those general views may be prac- 
tically applied to keeping within due bounds such insects as are in- 
jurious to our crops. Nothing butactual experiment can determine 
the practical value of these suggestions. 

Calculating from several distinct bases, I estimate that there are 
about thirty ‘thousand distinct species of ‘insects found within the 
limits of the United States—probably about ten times the number 
of all our other animals put together. Of this enormous amount, 
about one-fourth are insects of prey—or cannibals—specially ap- 
pointed by an All-wise Providence to keep the other three-fourths 
within due bounds. It is not meant that out of one hundred in- 
sects, indiscriminately captured, twenty-five will be cannibals, be- 

cause it is not so. Carnivorous species are always less numerous 
in individuals than the tribes upon which they live, for the simple 
reason that if there was a hawk to every pigeon, the hawk would 
catch the pigeon and then starve; if there was a wolf to every 
deer, the wolf would catch the deer, and then he too would starve. 
What is asserted is, that out of one hundred distinct speczes of in. 
sects, captured indiscriminately, nearly one-quarter will be canni- 
bals. And cannibals they.are called w ith great justice ; for, although 
the poets tell us that tiger will not prey upon tiger, nor Jion upon 
lion, and that man is the only animal that makes war upon his own 
species, yet many cannibal insects will kill and devour their own 
kind. Some of them, it may be observ ed, prey generally and in- 
discriminately upon other insects, and some, again, confine them- 
selves to one particular species, or to one particular family. They 
may be properly divided into three great groups— 


152 


First—Those which in the larva state hunt after their prey them- 
selves, as the great Carabus family, (ground-beetles,) comprising 
nearly a thousand species, already named and described, to be found 
within the United States; the’ Coccinella family, (lady-birds,) of 
which there are described about one hundred species ; the Lebellula 
family, (dragon-flies,) nearly three hundred species, and a great 
many other families, which it would be tedious to particularize. 

Second—Those which in the larva state confine themselves to 
cells or nests, constructed by the parent insect, and provisioned 
with the bodies of one or more insects, as food for the young larve. 
The different families of digger-wasps, (/ossores,) of which there 
are, probably, one thousand North American species, may be taken 
as examples. The common black and yellow mud-wasp, (Pelopeus 
lunatus, F.,) belongs to this group, although, like a species of Zry- 
povylon and four distinct species of Pompilide, which I possess, it 
constructs its nests above ground, of mud, and cannot, therefore, 
be strictly termed a digger. 

Third—Those which deposit their eggs in other living insects, 
the larvee proceeding from which feed on the bodies of those living 
insects, and eventually destroy them. The Great Ichneumon fam- 
ily, and four other closely allied families, having nearly the same 
habits, and which may be properly classed as Ichneumons, are in- 
stances in point. There are about three thousand distinct species 
of them, named and described, in Great Britain, and probably 
double that number will be found eventually in the United States. 

We read in books—and I can vouch for the fact from my own 
knowledge—that there are even ichneumon-flies which make other 
ichneumon-flies their special prey, thus forming check upon check. 
Spiders, as we all know, prey upon insects; and it is a species of 
spider that is selected by the common mud-wasp to provision its 
nest; but lest the mud-wasps, on the other hand, should become 
unduly numerous, Providence has created a large species of ich- 
neumon-fly, which deposits its egg in the larva of the mud-wasp, 
from which I have myself bred them. So the spider preys upon 
flies and other insects, the mud-wasp preys on the spider, and the 
ichneumon-fly preys on the mud-wasp ; each in its appointed place 
and at its appointed time, carrying out the great law of nature, 
“kill and be killed, eat and be eaten.” 4 

So skillfully is the whole system balanced and adjusted—a check 
here and a check there, and a counter-check upon both in another 
place—that in a state of nature, such as exists in our woods and 
forests, it is only in some special seasons, and in certain special lo- 
calities, that a particular insect becomes unduly numerous. For 
instance, in 1791, and again in 1853, the palmer worm stripped the 
forests and orchards bare throughout the State of New York and 
the whole of New England, “as if they had been scorched with 
tire,’ to use Dr. Fitch’s expressive language. Yet during all the 
intervening and succeeding years it was never observed in any ex- 
traordinary numbers. 


- 


But the necessities of civilization do not allow the face of the 
earth to remain, as a general thing, in a state of nature. Nature 
intended that plants of various kinds should grow mixed up to- 
gether, mutually controlling and checking one another, and mutu- 
ally, too, benefiting one another; for the poisonous secretions of 
one plant may form the healthful food of another. But civilized 
man finds it convenient to have all his wheat grow in one field, all 
his corn in another, and all his turnips in a third; and the plants 
that Nature intersperses among these crops—thus following out her 
original plan, so far as she is allowed—he ruthlessly ents down and 
denominates “weeds.” Every western farmer must have noticed 
how rapidly, in a favorable season, the chinch-bug overspreads a 
wheat tield. Now if the same number of wheat plants had been 
scattered promiscuously over a township of land, mixed up with 
several hundred other species of plants, it must be obvious that 
this sect could not increase with near such rapidity, because its 
appropriate food would not be always ready to its mouth. On the 
same principle, a lot of hogs, that would thrive and multiply if they 
had daily fed to them a bushel of shelled corn on one single spot 
of ground, would starve if the same quantity of corn. was scattered 
over the whole county, and they-had to pick it up for a living.* 

Again, nature intended that every plant should stand undis- 
turbed, and pertect its seed where she has herself placed it, and 
that part of that seed should fall on the ground, part be devoured 
by the fowls and insects of the air, and part be gathered by the In- 
dian ; just as at this very day, the red Indian gathers his wild rice 
by hand on the head waters of the Mississippi. But instead of 
this, the natural process, civilized man, after having compelled his 
wheat to grow all in one field by itself, so soon as it is ripe cuts it 
all off even with the ground and carts it into his barn, straw and 
all; thus, no doubt, carrying off and destroying the eggs of many 
cannibal insects, and interfering generally with the wise arrange- 
ments of nature. 

Nowit is universally the case, that whenever man, by his artificial 
arrangements, violates great natural laws, unless by some artificial 
means he can restore the overturned balance, he pays the penalty 
attixed to his offense. The voluptuary may overload his stomach, 
but, unless he has recourse to his dinner pill, he pays the penalty 
of an indigestion. So with the farmer and the horticulturist. Un- 
til they can restore the natural equilibrium which has been disar- 
ranged by their artificial processes, they pay the penalty in the 
damage inflicted on them by plant-feeding insects. They must as- 
sist nature, whenever, for necessary purposes, they have thwarted 
and controlled her, if they wish to appease her wrath. 

If these views be correct, it would seem to follow, as a necessary 


* This point has been well developed by Dr. Fitch, in his annual address before the 


New York Agricultural Society, 1859, with a copy of which he has been kind enough 
to favor me. 


—17 


consequence, that one of tue most’ effectual means of controllin 
noxious insects is to be found in the artificial propagation of suc 
cannibal species as are naturally designed to prey on them. We 
must tight fire with fire, and use one nail to drive ont another, Cats 
are bred all over the world to prevent rats and mice from becoming 
unduly numerous; ferrets are bred for the same purpose in Europe, 
and are found very useful. Every sportsman knows that different 
breeds of dogs are employed in hunting downand catching various 
kinds of wild animals. In all these cases man sets a quadruped to 
catch a quadruped. There can be no good reason given why he 
should not also set an insect to catch an insect. The idea of prop- 
agating cannibal insects artificially, may at first seem startling, but 
fifteen years ago, if any man had proposed the artificial propagation 
of fish, it would have startled the world just as much. And yet, 
nowadays, this is a regular business, not only in France, where it 
was first invented, but even in the New England States. Bees 
and silkworms have been bred artificially for centuries, and the 
Mexicans raise annually, by a most elaborate process, a million 
pounds of cochineal, each pound containing, according to an exact 
calculation of Humboldt’s, seventy thousand distinct insects. En- 
tomologists, too, are in the constant habit of breeding insects of all 
kinds, partly for the sake of studying their habits, and partly for 
the sake of becoming acquainted with their transformations. Now 
if naturalists do.this on a small scale, in the interests of science, 
there can be no physical reason why it should not be done by oth- 
ers, on a large scale, in the interests of agriculture. There can be 
no physical reason why it should not be just as common to send to 
the insect-breeder for a box of dragon-flies, or an ounce of the best 
inchneumon-flies, as it now is tosend to the druggist for a pound of 
Spanish flies ora quarter of an ounce of cochineal. 

It is perfectly true, as every entomologist is aware, that it is 
generally more difficult to breed cannibal insects than plant-feeders. 
But so is it more difficult to breed insect-eating birds than grain- 
eating birds; and yet experience has taught bird-fanciers how to 
do it successfully. Even among the plant-feeding insects, every 
one who has had much practice on the subject knows that there 
are certain species and certain families which are hard to breed by 
the ordinary methods. But every now and then some successful 
experimenter discovers a peculiar method of treating them, which 
removes all the difficulty before experienced. The gigantic cater- 
pillar of the death’s head moth, (Acherontia atropos,) is well known 
to European entomologists to be hard to raise to maturity, yet I 
was acquainted with an English dealer in insects, who, by a pecu- 
liar process, always succeeded inso doing. Many North American 
hawk-moths, (Sphingide,) are similarly troublesome to breed; yet I 
have recently had communicated to me by Mr. Wm. H. Edwards, 
the New York Lepidopterist, a most original method of treating 
them, which he has practiced for two years with uniform success. 
If a thousandth part of the time and money expended in breeding 


155 


race-horses had been expended in breeding insects, there vould pro- 
bably be now little practical difficulty in raising any species what- 
ever to maturity. 

Although, so far as I am aware, cannibal insects have never yet 
been bred for utilitarian purposes, yet it is by no means an uncom- 
mon practice to collect such as are found at large in the woods and 
fields, and apply them to subdue some particular insect that is an- 
noying us. Thus, for a long series of years, the larve of lady- 
birds, (Coccinellidw,) and of lace-wing flies, (Llemerobide) have 
been employed by European gardeners to destroy plant-lice, which 
they do most effectually. The nest of our American bald-faced 
hornet is occasionally suspended in a house to kill off the house- 
flies ; and J wasinformed by a young lady who teaches school, that 
she once turned a dragon-fly loose in her school room for the same 
purpose, and that, as I can readily believe, the experiment was per- 
fectly successful. We are also told by Kuhn,* “that six or eight 
specimens of Pentatoma bidens, [a European bug, closely allied to 
the large stinking bugs, often noticed on blackberries, &e., in the 
United States,] shut up in a room swarming with the bed-bug for 
several weeks, completely extirpated the latter.” And M_ Bois- 
gerard,t+ states, “that having placed some female Calosome, [a 
beetle of the Carabus family,] upon trees greatly infested with the 
caterpillars of Bombyx dispar, the larvee of the Calosome were 
found in the following season in the nests of the caterpillars, and 
that in the course of two or three years the trees were cleared.” 

The bird known by the name of the English Pheasant—althongh 
it is not, in reality, a species indigenous to England—is artificially 
propagated there in enormous numbers, for sporting purposes. 
Groves of timber are planted purposely to afford them shelter— 
buckwheat is sown solely for the sake of providing them with ap- 
propriate food in winter—and a whole army of game-keepers is 
maintained to make war on pole-cats, weasels, hawks, owls, and 
other predaceous animals, whether biped or quadruped,: which 
nature has appointed to prevent such birds from becoming unduly 
numerous. The consequence is, that on the estates of many no- 
blemen, pheasants may be seen any day walking about as plentiful 
as common fowls ina farm yard. Suppose, now, instead of pheas- 
ants, we wished to multiply, artificially, the number of a particular 
species of dragon-fly, or snake-feeder, as it is absurdly called in this 
country. Weknow, to begin with, that the female dragon-fly lays 
a very great number of eggs, and that the larve live in the water, 
generally in stagnant water,t and are cannibals like the full-grown 


*Quoted in Westwood’s Introduction, I, page 486: +Ibid, I, page 66. 


tAuthors lay it down as arule that the Libellulina are confined to stagnant water ; 
but I possess an undescribed species of Gomphus, allied to G. noéatus, Rambur, the lar- 
ve of which occurs in the Mississippi. I am enabled to state with certainty that this 
species is undescribed, because Dr. Hagen, the great Prussian Neuropterist, has kindly 
favored me with a copy of the first two volumes of the magnificent work on the Libel- 
lulina now in course of publication by him and M. Selys de Longchamp df Belgium. 


156 


insects. All that would be necessary, therefore, would be to pro- 
vide a suitable pond of water, which the ordinary operations of na- 
ture will soon fill with a host of plant-feeding larvae, and to take 
proper measures to keep out frogs, geese, ducks, certain water 
beetles (Dyticide) and other pre-eminently rapacious insects. The 
young dragon-flies would then be placed precisely in the situation 
of the English pheasants—good shelter, plenty of food and no 
enemies to destroy them. And the result would be that they 
would increase with a rapidity which we may easily estimate from 
the consideration, that a pheasant lays about a dozen eggs, and a 
dragon-fly, several hundred. 

This, or something approaching to this—the conditions of the 
process being, of course, varied, according to the peculiar habits of 
the species operated upon—would be the method to be taken with 
the first great group of cannibals above referred to, most ot which 
are general feeders. In the case of the other two groups, however, 
the difficulty would be greater, for the simple reason that so far as 
our very limited knowledge on the subject extends, many of them 
are confined to feeding on some particular species of insect, and 
cannot exist upon any other. [or example, the minute Ichneu- 
mon-tly (Lurytoma destructor, Say,) which was observed more than 


forty years ago by Thomas Say, to be parasitic on the Hessian-fly, | 


has not hitherto, I believe, been noticed to be parasitic on any 
other species of insects. In order to breed this Ichneumon, there- 
fore, we should, in the present state of our knowledge, be obliged 
first to breed Hessian flies, which would involve the destruction of a 
corresponding quantity of wheat or other small grain. Thus, tomend 
one hole we should make another; and should be much in the situ- 
ation of a lady who raised acolony of mice purposely to feed out 
to her young kittens. There is some reason, however, to think 
that a more accurate investigation of the habits of these interesting 
insects will show us, that they are not so much confined to particu- 
lar species as is generally supposed; and that most of them prey 
indiscriminately upon two or more closely allied species. Simi- 
larly amongst the plant-feeders, the capricorn beetle, ( Clytus pictus, 
Drury,) which is so rapidly destroying the locust trees in the east- 
ern part of this State, must have confined itself originally to our 
indigenous walnuts, as is manifest from the well known fact that 
the locust is not indigenous but imported.* 

It is not generally known that several of our most noxious in- 
sects are themselves not indigenous but imported. The honse-fly, 
there can be little doubt, was originally introduced in ships, which, 
in the summer, always swarm with them; and it is a curious fact 
that we have in a similar manner supplied the South Sea Island- 


*In September, 1860, I noticed swarms of this pretty species at Jacksonville, at 
Bloomington, and at LaSalle, and heard much complaint of theirravages. In the same 
month, I took two specimens near Rock Island. In 1858 and 1859, I met with but one 
solitary individval near Rock Island, which I split out of a billet of fire wood. 


157 


ers with our American mosquito. The bark louse again, which in 
1855, was confined to the immediate vicinity of Lake Michigan, 
but which has now worked its way westward to the Mississippi, is 
identical with the European species; and has doubtless been intro- 
duced from Europe, where itis comparatively harmless. The Hes- 
_sian-fly was imported trom Germany in 1776, in some wheat straw 
shipped for the use of George I1I’s Hessian mercenaries, and has 
done us a hundred times the damage in dollars and cents, that the 
royalist troops ever inflicted upon us from one end to the other of 
the war of the Revolution. The wheat midge was imported about 
1820—28—probably from England, where it is sometimes rather 
troublesome. And not to mention minor pests, a European leaf- 
eating beetle (G@aleruca calmariensis) has for years been destroying 
the ornamental elm trees in the city of Baltimore and its vicinity, 
whence, no doubt, if not checked by artificial means, it will in pro- 
cess of time extend itself over a considerable portion of the United 
States. 

It generally happens that when a noxious insect is accidentally 
imported into the country, the cannibal species appointed by a wise 
Providence to keep it in check are not imported along with it. 
For example, there are three small Ichneumon-tlies, that prey on 
the wheat-midge in England, and not one of them has yet found 
its way to this country. ‘There was an account, indeed, quite re- 
cently, in a Canadian paper, of such an insect having been discov- 
ered in Canada; but supposing even that this is correct, at the aver- 
age rate at which imported insects progress—about thirty miles a 
year—it will take thirty years before it gets to Illinois; and in the 
meantime our farmers are losing annually enormous stms of mo- 
ney for the want of it. In England, on the contrary, where the 
midge is kept within due bounds by its three parasites, the great- 
est damage that I can find on record as having been done by this 
insect, is the destruction of one-twentzeth (!!) of the crop, which is 
recorded by Kirby & Spence asa very extraordinary event!! 
Now whatever we may think of the idea of artificially propagating 
cannibal insects—and however visionary we may choose to pro- 
nounce all such schemes—it must be evident that in such a case 
as this, where it is a question not of artificial propagation, but of 
artificial introduction, the parasites ought to be imported at the 
public expense. There is the antidote, on the other side of the 
Atlantic; here is the bane, right in the midst of us. If you wish 
to be healed, stretch out your hand and take hold of the medicine. 

One thing at all events is certain: out of nothing comes nothing; 
and if nothing is attempted, nothing will ever be accomplished. 

Before | conclude, I wish to offer a few remarks more especially 
applicable to three or four of our most noxious insects, 


158 


THE HESSIAN FLY. 


It a curious fact that for many years back the Hessian fly has 
done but very little damage in the eastern States. -Yet it has not 
been extirpated there; for Dr. Fitch informs us that specimens 
may occasionally be met with in wheat fields in New York. What 
then is the reason that it should have ceased to be troublesome in 
the east, and still continue troublesome in the west? There can 
be no rational cause assigned but the presence in the east of four 
distinct species of parasitic flies, which prey upon it so extensively 
there that, according to Mr. Herrick, of Connecticut, they destroy 
nine out of every ten. It is possible one or more of these parasites 
may exist in Illinois; but the presumption rather seems to be that 
they have not yet reached us. It would be very desirable that 
some competent person should examine into this point; and that if 
the slow processes of nature have not yet furnished us with the nat- 
ural check upon the Hessian-fly, artificial means should be imme- 
diately employed to introduce it amongst us. 

Whether any or all of these four parasites of the Hessian-fly 
have been imported from Europe, or whether—which seems the 
more probable supposition—they are indigenous insects which have 
permanently acquired new habits, isa question of very great scien- 
tific interest, but practically, perhaps of minor importance. It cer- 
tainly does seem very remarkable that of the two allied insects, 
the Hessian-fly and the wheat-midge, the former should have been 
attacked by no less than four Ichneumons within sixty years of its 
importation, and the latter although it has been imported about 
forty yearg, should not as yet have been attacked by a single 
species. 

Although the Hessian-fly belongs to the same fgenus, (Cecido- 
myia,) as the wheat-midge, yet it differs remarkably trom that insect 
and most of its congeners, in being double-brooded, or having two 
distinct generations produced every year; the eggs of the one being 
deposited in the spring of the year, and of the other in the fall, 
upon the winter wheat. It must be obvious, therefore, that if no 
winter grain were grown anywhere in the State, the insect would 
be soon starved out; and this is no doubt the reason that, in the 
north of Illinois, where the farmers have very generally given up 
growing winter wheat, we hear scarcely anything of it. 

Pasturing winter wheat, infected with the Hessian fly, very 
closely with sheep, has always been considered the best remedy, 
the sheep biting so close that they eat the insect along with the 
green stem on which it is located. A correspondent of the J/linots 
Prairie Larmer states that in the years 1856-7 he pastured a piece 
of infected wheat very close indeed with cattle—so close that his 
neighbors thought he had ruined it—and yet reaped a fair crop 
from it after all. 


159 


THE APPLE TREE BORERS. 


Dr. Fitch, speaking of the striped borer (Saperda bivittata, Say.) 
says that a certain preventive is “to rub the bark of the trees with 
soap, the latter part of May, each year,” and that “he had applied 
it to a part of his trees and omitted it from others, and in the fol- 
lowing spring had found young borers in almost every tree where 
the soap had not been applied, whilst not one could be detected in 
any of the soaped trees.” This is the experimentum crucis of Ba- 
con, and appears to settle the question as to this insect. Itis a pity 
all experiments with insects are not carried out upon an equally 
satisfactory footing. 

In the State of Illinois our apple trees appear to be more troubled 
by the Chrysobothris femorata than by the Saperda bivittata, which 
I have never met with near Rock Island. The former insect at- 
tacks not only the ¢rwnks of apple trees, but also small limbs, only 
three-quarters of an inch in diameter. The place where this borer 
has been at work may frequently be recognized by a slight scratch, 
crossways of the limb, looking just as if it had been made by the 
claw of a cat. I presume that this is the spot where the parent in- 
sect deposited its eggs, but as it has a fresh appearance, even when 
the insect underneath it is nearly mature, it is probably used also 
by the larva to get rid of a portion of its castings. 

Whether soap is as effectual a remedy against the Chrysobothris 
as against the Saperda, remains to be proved. 


THE CURCULIO. 


No ichneumon-fly preying upon the curculio has yet been dis- 
covered in the United States; but there exists such an insect in 
Canada, discovered within the last twelve months, and Dr. Fitch 
has figured and described it as the Curculio Parasite, (Sigalphus 
curculionis.) Ihave taken a Phanerotoma near Rock Island, very 
closely resembling it, and of another closely allied genus I pos- 
sess Chelonus sericeus, (Say,) and nine smaller species, but upon 
what insect these ichneumon-flies are parasites, I have no know- 
ledge whatever. Whether the curculio causes the “black knot” in 
plum trees or not, it is an undoubted fact that it breeds in the 
“black knot,” and, therefore, every piece of it that can be found 
should be carefully burnt, if we wish to diminish the numbers of 
this pest. 

It is a well established fact that where plum trees overhang 
water, the curculio will not deposit its eggs in the plums. It has 
also been stated, though the fact does not rest upon equaily good 
authority, that the same result follows if the ground under the 
plum trees is paved with flat stones, or even tramped very hard. 
The reason seems to be that the insect foresees that its larvee will re- 
quire to burrow into the earth as soon as they leave the fruit and 


160 


avoids those trees which have not moderately soft earth underneath 
them. Paving the ground, however, under fruit trees, would pro- 
bably injure their growth, and the same end might perhaps be 
attained, without injuring the trees, by erecting a platform of boards 
round every tree, at a suitable distance from the surface of the 
earth. But here, again, asin so many other cases, experiments 
are needed. 


THE CHINCH BUG. 


These skunks of the insect world are neither one-brooded, like 
the wheat midge, nor two-brooded, like the Hessian-fly, but many- 
brooded, like the common house-fly. That is to say, there are 
several generations of them produced every year, for they are found 
in the larva state all through the summer, and even as late as Oc- 
tober; and, like the house-fly, they Aybernate, or pass the winter in 
the perfect state. I have always found them abundant in moss in 
the winter months, and I have occasionally noticed them under 
logs, etc., at the same season. There can be little doubt but that 
on a farm they chiefly hybernate in the old tufts of grass and dead 
weeds which are allowed to accumulate near fences ; for it is always 
on the outside edge of a piece of wheat that they commence their 
depredations. Moreover, twenty years ago, when Illinois was 
thinly settled, and the prairie fires swept annually over the greater 
portion of its surface, we heard nothing of the chinch bug, proba- 
bly because the fire used to destroy most of them in their winter 
quarters. Wherever worm fences have been replaced by board 
fences, it would be found a very useful precaution to burn annually 
along them in the winter. A single chinch-bug thus destroyed, 
might, if left alone, become the parent of fifty thousand. 

Hot dry weather is required tor the rapid multiplication of this 
insect, and a heavy shower of rain checks them immediately. 
When they are leaving the wheat at harvest time, and going on to 
the corn, it might perhaps, in some cases, where water was conven- 
ient, be a paying operation to pour a little upon every hill of corn 
that stood within a moderate distance of the wheat. But the most 
effectual method is to plow the wheat stubble as soon as ever the 
wheat is cut, as deeply as can be conveniently done ; by which op- 
eration a great many of the perfect insects, and probably all their 
eges—which appear to be deposited close to the surface of the 
ground, or a little underneath it, at the root of the plant—will be 
buried never to rise again. 

It has been generally said that there is no insect which depre- 
dates on the chinch-bug. I have reason to believe that there are 
no less than Four distinct species which do so. On the 19th of 
last September, having received from St. Paul, Minnesota, a spe- 
cimen of Jps quadrisignata, (Say,) with a statement that it was 
destroying a great deal of sweet corn in that vicinity, and knowing 
that this insect was tolerably abundant near Rock Island, I exam- 


ee 


161 


ined a large patch of sweet corn in the field of one of our market 
gardeners, to see if I could detect it there. I did not find it, al- 
though I carefully opened about fifty ears; but underneath the 
husks of almost every one I noticed, as is quite usual, one or more 
chinch-bugs, some in the perfect state, and some in the pupa, and 
I also noticed, to my great surprise, quite a number of specimens 
of four very common species belonging to the lady-bird (or Coec?- 
nella) family, all the known American species of which are canni- 
bals. With the exception of the chinch-bugs and a few individuals 
of a smaller and closely allied species of bug, (Anthocorus pseudo- 
chinche, Fitch,)—which has frequently been mistaken for the true 
chinch-bug although it is not half its size and is shaped very differ- 
ently—there were no other insects under the corn-husks. The 
idea at once occurred to me that these lady-birds were depredating 
upon the chinch-bugs; and I was confirmed in this opinion upon 
finding a pupa, which was evidently that of some Coccinellide, pro- 
bably C. munda, (Say,) in the same situation. Now since the pupa 
was there, the larva must also have lived there, for it is not the habit 
of these larvee to get into holes and corners to complete their trans- 
formations; and if the larve lived there, there was nothing else 
for them to live on but the above mentioned two species of bug, 
the smaller of which never occurs in any great numbers like the 
larger and more mischievous chinch-bug. 

That the lady-birds were then and there preying upon chinch- 
bugs, I have but little doubt; but it does not necessarily follow that 
they habitually prey upon chinch-bugs. They might have been 
driven to prey upon them for lack of more agreeable food; as a cat 
will sometimes eat bread when she cannot obtain meat. Nothing 
but actual experiment and observation can determine the truth in 
this matter. 

Authors, copying from one another, generally lead us to suppose 
that the Coccinella family feeds exclusively upon the different spe- 
cies of plant-lice. That thisis the case with many of our North 
American species, is undoubtedly true; for I have myself bred four 
species which had that habit. On the other hand Mr. Rob. Ken- 
nicott discovered Chilocorus stigma, (Say,) preying both on the com- 
mon bark-louse of the apple and on the bark-louse of the pine, 
(Aspidiotus pinifoliw, Fitch.) In the spring of 1860 I found 
numerous specimens of a nine-spotted lady-bird (Coccinella no- 
vemmotata, Herbst,) under dry cow-dung along with many of 
their orange-colored eggs; and although there was a variety of 
other insects there, there was no appearance of any plant-lice. 
And lastly, in the summer of 1560 I discovered swarms of ippo- 
damia maculata, (DeGeer,) preying on a species of bark-louse, 
which differed only from the common species (A. conchiformis) in 
having bright red instead of white eggs, and in infesting not the 
apple tree but a species of willow, (Sadzz nigra, Marshall.*) What 


* For the determination of this species I am indebted to my friend M. 8. Bebb, Esq., 
who has paid particular attention to the very difficult family of willows. 


162 


is especially remarkable is that the very species which was thus in 
the summer detected preying on a bark-louse was one of the four 
which in the fall was to all appearance preying on the chinch-bug. 

Of these four enemies of the chinch-bug two are quite small and 
obscurely colored insects, belonging to the genus Seymnus, and 
might easily be confounded with a great variety of other beetles of 
entirely different habits by the inexperienced in such matters. It 
will be sufficient, therefore, to state that the larve of this genus 
are described by Dr. Harris as “clothed with short tufts or flakes 
of the most delicate white down,” and by Westwood as “entirely 
clothed with a white cottony secretion.” If any such larve are 
noticed amongst chinch-bugs hereafter by amateurs, it may be 
known what they are doing there. The two other enemies of the 
chinch-bug are conspicuous insects, and with the assistance of a 
figure may be readily identified by any person that has got two 
eyes in his head. They occur profusely in summer on all kinds 
ot weeds, tall grass, shrubs, etc., and may be captured in any re- 
quired numbers by simply beating the weeds, ete., backward and 
forward with a hoop of stout wire fastened to a staff and having a 
cloth bag sewn on to it. As fast as taken from the bag they may 
be dropped into a large bottle having an open quill running right 
through its cork, and filled loosely with leaves; and they may af- 
terwards be emptied out upon any crop infested with chinch-bugs, 
amongst which they would, in all probability, deposit a copious 
supply of their eggs. It is to the larve proceeding from these 
eggs that we should look for the greatest amoynt of benefit; for the 
perfect lady-birds eat comparatively but little, while the larvee are 
arrant gormandizers. Below will be found a figure and a short 
description of these two insects : 

| 1 2 8 


Figure 1st represents Zippodamia maculata, (DeGeer,) magni- 
fied, the adjacent line exhibiting its natural length. The colors 
are black and a bright blood-red, almost verging upon pink. The 
red in all the other species of lady-birds with which I am acquaint- 
ed is not blood-red but brick-red. 

Figure 2nd represents Coccinella munda, (Say,) magnified, with 
aline showing its natural length. The colors are black, white, and 
light brick-red. It is the only species I know that has its wing- 
cases red without any black spots at all. 

Figure 3rd is copied from Westwood, and is the larva of a Eu- 
ropean species of lady-bird. There is a general resemblance 
amongst the larvee of all the Coccinellas, and their colors are mostly 
brown-black with buff spots. The larve of No. 1 and No. 2 Ihave 


163 


never bred, but presume they do not differ materially from those 
of some other North American species, which I have bred, and 
which come very close to the figure. 

It is only necessary to add, in conclusion, that the lady-birds 
(Coceinellide) may be distinguished from other beetles by having 
only three joints to their feet instead of four or jive. The only 
family of beetles which agrees with them in this peculiarity (’ndo- 
mychide) consists of a very small number of species, all of them 
quite rare. 


BENJ. D. WALSH. 
Rock Istanp, January 8, 1861. 


THE ARMY-WORM AND ITS INSECT FOES—THE REMEDY. 


The practical result of the following pages may be expressed in 
very few words: Burn your tame grass meadows over annually, m 
the dead of the year, and get your neighbors to do the same, and you 
will never more be troubled with the army-worm. 

But there is a large class of farmers who have been fooled so re- 
peatedly by quack prescriptions and powders Pimperlimpimp, war- 
ranted to killevery bug on the farm if you only scatter afew grains 
in the four corners of every field, that they have lost all faith in 
the possibility of counterworking to any good purpose their insect 
enemies. There is also another large class amongst the agricultu- 
ral community, who, although they might be disposed to believe 
in a remedy recommended by good scientific authority, are yet 
laudably desirous to understand the principle upon which that rem- 
edy works. Such men read and think, as well as work and over- 
see. They do not know much, perhaps, of Natural History, but 
they do not consider it beneath the dignity of man to study the 
handiwork of God, however microscopically minute that handiwork 
may be; and, therefore, they are not too proud to listen to minute 
descriptions of the habits and instincts of insects, and especially of 
such as are injurious to their crops. Itis for the use of these two 
classes of men that I have drawn up the following imperfect sketch 
of the Natural History of the Illinois army-worm. The reader will 
thus be enabled to judge for himself whether the remedy I have in- 
dicated be in reality a remedy, or whether it be one of those quack 
nostrums, generalized from a solitary experiment, which ignorant 
pretenders are constantly obtruding upon the agricultural world; 
just as the charlatan, having given a dose of calomel on the same 
day to a shoemaker and a tailor, and having found that it salivated 
the former but had no effect upon the latter, announced with great 
pomp, in a medical journal, that mercury salivated shoemakers, but 
produced no result whatever on the constitutions of tailors. 

But first let me explain what facilities I have enjoyed for exe- 
cuting this task. Through the liberality of the Rock Island and 
Chicago, and the Illinois Central Railroads, in granting me a 
free pass, as a member of the Illinois Natural History Society, 


164 


over their roads, I was enabled to start the middle of last June for 
an entomological excursion, of four or five weeks, into the extreme 
southern point of Illinois. Stopping on my way at Bloomington, 
I collected there about sixty army-worms, which, as soon as [ ar- 


rived at my destination, I transferred to a suitable breeding cage, — 


and watched through their transformations. I also took every op- 
portunity, both while traveling on the cars and while “collecting” in 
the country, to gather up and note down all the information on the 
subject I could get; and [ am indebted also for many valuable hints, 
to sundry articles which have appeared in the Zllinois Prairie 
Farmer. Imake no pretension to having occupied the whole or 
even a large part, of my time, while resident in the South, in this 
task. In a scientific point of view, the army-worm is no more in- 
teresting than any one of the four or five thousand species of moths 
that are found within the limits of the United States. There is 


nothing unusual, nothing mysterious, nothing abnormal abont it. © 


But I always hate to give nothing for something, and having been 
obliged by the railroad companies, I endeavored, to the extent of 
my poor abilities, to return the obligation, by seeking a remedy 
for alittle pest, that has this year destroyed one-fourth part of the 
tame hay grown within the limits of the State. 


THE ARMY-WORM LARVA. FIG. I. 


Like all other insects, the army-worm takes its origin from an 
egg, generated by the perfect insect when arrived at the winged, or 
imago, state. Like other insects, too, the mother takes good care 
to deposit her eggs in the precise locality, where instinct teaches 
her that they will remain in safety until they are hatched, and 
where the young larva, as soon as it is hatched, will have at hand 
a copious supply of its appropriate food. Such a locality is found 
in the stalks of perennial grasses, such as timothy, blue grass and 
red top, as near as may be to the root, where the egg will be pro- 
tected from the severe frosts of winter by the old dead leaves which 
accumulate there. For, as we shall afterward see, the egg is de- 
posited in June or July, and lies dormant until the following spring. 
In Southern Illinois, as I learn from my friend and co-laborer, Mr. 
Cyrus Thomas, the egg hatches out about the middle of April; in 
Central Illinois it must be about a month later, judging from the 
growth of the specimens I obtained at Bloomington. Four or five 
weeks may be given as about the time that it takes the newly 
hatched larva to arrive at its full larva growth; and it is in this 
state only that it forces itself upon the attention of the farmer by 
devouring his meadows, sometimes so completely as to kill the 
whole field dead. Not only the leaves, but the heads, and even a 
portion of the stalks are eaten; and I was informed by a lad, who 
resides near Tamaroa, that fields of red top grass attacked by them 
often seemed transformed into timothy, on a cursory view, each 
stalk being surmounted by a caterpillar, gnawing away at it, and 
looking like a head of timothy. Sosoon as food is beginning to be 


THE ARMY-WORM IN ITS THREE STATES. 


Fig. 1—Leucania unipuncta, (Haworth;) larva state. 
Fig. 2—Leucania unipuncta, (Haworth ;) pupa state. 
Fig. 3—Leucania unipuncta, (Haworth ;) imago state. 


To face page 164. 


165 


scarce, then is developed the instinct of traveling ir large troops or 
armies in search of better quarters, from w hich the insect derives 
its popular name. This habit, however, is by no means peculiar 
to this species, but is found in many other insects—the locusts of 
Seripture and of modern Europe, for example, which belong to the 
family commonly known as gr rasshoppers in this country, and are 
altogether distinct from what is here popularly called a “locust.” 
Those army-worms which I saw myself at Bloomington, were in a 
small patch of timothy, attached to a gentleman’s warden in the 
outskirts of that city, and not being sufliciently numerous to more 
than eat up one-third part of the leaves, had never manifested any 
disposition to travel, although they were almost all full grown. I 
noticed that they had not attacked a blade of some wild prairie 
grass, which immediately adjoined the timothy. On the subject of 
their migrations, which I have never been for tunate enough person- 
ally to witness, I cannot do better than quote the words of B. 
an accurate observer, hailing from Pesotum, IIl., as recorded in the 
Prarie Karmer, of July 4th, 1861: 


‘An army of them was observed to travel sixty yards in two hours, in an effort to go 
around a ditch. They began to travel from the infected districts between two and three 
o’clock, p.m. Toward sundown the tide of travel was retrograde. They did not travel 
at night. They fed chiefly at night and in the forenoon. As to their number, they 
have been seen moving from one field to another, rHreE TrERS DEEP. A ditch has been 
filled with them to the depth of THREE INCHES IN HALF AN HOUR.” 


When they leave the meadows in which they originate, they 
travel on—sometimes as far as half a mile—until they meet with 
wheat, rye, oats, corn, sorghum, or Hungarian grass. Oats appear 
but very little to their t taste, and they seldom damage them much; 
neither do they relish clover; corn they almost iny ariably destroy 
so as to necessitate its being replanted, which, as every farmer 
knows, involves a loss always of ten or fifteen bushels to the acre, 
and sometimes, when the season is unfavorable, of the entire crop. 
Of wheat, they generally devour nothing but the blades, which does 
not seem to injure, and in the opinion of some farmers, benefits the 
crop by keeping off the “rust.” I ascertained a most remarkable 
fact from Capt. Post, of Decatur, and on inquiry in Southern Illi- 
nois, found that the same thing had occurred there. In passing 
through a wheat field they devour bodily every spear of ‘‘chess”— 
not merely the leaves, but the stalk and the head—and thereby 
actually confer a benefit on the farmer. For “chess,” or “cheat,” 
as it is sometimes called, is a species of grass, the seeds of which 

make the flour blue, and are peculiarly difficult to screen out, from 
their resembling in shape and weight a shrunken kernel of wheat. 
As an instance of the rapidity with which they work, Mr. Gilbert, 
of Vermilion county, states that ‘a friend of his having a piece of 
timothy near his house, (about one acre,) left home for church about 
nine or ten o’clock, A.M. On returning home, after dining on the 
way, he found the whole piece had been riddled, and appeared as 
if fire had been over it;” and Mr. G. W. Miller, of Indiana, states 


166 


that “he hears of their eating up twenty acres in a day very fre- 
quently.” Many instances are on record of the great difficulty 
with which they have been kept out of houses which happened to 
lie in their path. 

Ditching has been extensively employed in Illinois to stop the 
army-worm in his travels; but it is necessary to make the further 
side of the ditch plumb, or a little undermining; and even then, 
if the soil is stiff and clayey, so as not to crumble off when 
seized by the little claws of their feet, they contrive to climb the 
obstacle. At the best, all that is thus effected is to confine the 
damage to the meadows where it originated, and prevent it from 
spreading int the cereal crops. But the most preposterous of all 
conceivable methods to stop the depredations of this insect upon 
wheat, is one which has been practiced by many farmers, and which 
is gravely stated by several of them to have been the means of 
saving the crop! They drag long ropes over the heads of the 
grain, thus causing all the worms to fall to the ground, as most 
kinds of plant-feeders will do when disturbed. They then jump 
to the conclusion that the worms will not climb up again to feed— 
which is much like supposing that a colt will not come back again 
to a pile of good oats after you have once driven him away—and 
having satisfied themselves on this point, they jump to the further 
conclusion that this sapient method of circumventing the army- 
worm was the cause of their getting good wheat; whereas no fact 
is better established than that the army-worm did no injury to 
the wheat crop of 1861 by passing through it, and that—rope or no 
rope—they would have had an equally good crop. _ It is certainly 
possible that if the blades of the wheat are pretty nearly consumed, 
this causing the caterpillars to fall to the ground simultaneously 
may start them on their travels. I was told by Col. Dougherty, 
that firing a cannon as often as two or three times, has a similar 
effect. But what can be gained by causing them to shift their 
quarters from the wheat, which they actually benefit, to the corn, 
which they utterly rnin? There is an old Greek joke, more than 
two thousand years old, about a foolish fellow shaking the boughs 
of a tree to make the birds fall to the ground, so that he might catch 
them; but this idea of shaking caterpillars to the ground, so that 
they may not dare to climb up again, is a trifle ahead even of Hie- 
rocles and his Facetiz. 

So little, indeed, are the laws of Natural History understood in 
this country, that, as I learn from Mr. Townsend Glover, the Ento- 
mologist of the Maryland Agricultural College, “a naturalist, in a 
western paper, gravely states that this caterpillar may be vivipa- 
rous, and may give birth to living baby caterpillars, which also, in 
due time, follow the great law of nature, and likewise become happy 
mothers to another caterpillar brood.” Yes, and lambs may pro- 
duce lambs, and calves may generate calves, and little girls of five 
years old may be the mothers of fine thriving families. One event 
is every whit as likely, and every whit as possible, as the other. 


167 


As we might expect from the laws governing the development 
of insect life, the army-worms make their appearance in noticeable 
numbers in different years in different parts of the State. I have 
no doubt that they exist in small numbers in every part of the State 
from year to year; for although they have never appeared till 1861 
in the neighborhood ot Rock Island, in such numbers as to attract 
attention, yet I myself captured a single specimen of the army- 
worm moth in Rock Island county, in each of the three years, *58, 
*59 and’60, At Okaw they are recorded to have appeared in 1850; 
in the south part of Vermilion county, in 1835; and Mr. Joseph 
Bragshaw, of Perry county, says that they visited that county in 
"25, °26, 784, °39, 41 and 742. Colonel Dougherty, of Jones- 
boro, in Union county, one of the oldest and most respected citizens 
of Southern Illinois, informed me that about 1818 or ’20 they were 
far more numerous there than in 1861, and that in 1861 there 
would not be a single cock of hay put up in his neighborhood save 
one meadow which was part clover and part timothy, and which I 
can myself testify was badly “patchy,” there not being more than 
an eighth part of it which would turn out a good swarth of clover, 
the timothy being “nil” throughout. In 1838 again, according to 
the Colonel, there were but few of them. In 1842 they were about 
as in 1861; and in 1856 they occurred only in small numbers. 

Many suppose, from the analogy of the insect known as the sev- 
enteen year locust, that army-worms make their appearance only 
after the lapse of a certain definite number of years. But the cases 
are altogether different. The locust (Cicada septemdecem, Linn.) 
appears in one and the same neighborhood every seventeen years, 
because, strange as it may seem, it takes exactly seventeen years, 
neither more nor less, for its larva to arrive at maturity in the 
bowels of the earth. But the army-worm goes through the whole 
cycle of its transformations in a few months, and what is to become 
of the breed during the years that intervene before the period of 
its next supposed advent? People have puzzled their brains a 
great deal to explain why it appears in great numbers only in cer- 
tain years, as if there were some wonderful mystery in the cireum- 
stance. Whereas, in reality, such periodical swarmings of partic- 
ular insects are some of those common and well understood occur- 
rences, which create no surprise whatever in the mind of any Nat- 
uralist. 

I shall afterwards show how it happens that this particular in- 
sect swarms in certain years and is not noticed in others. I am 
almost ashamed to waste time in explaining what every child in 
the State ought to know; but I have been proceeding throughout 
on the supposition that my readers know nothing of the subject, 
and those who are better informed will understand perfectly well 
the policy of such a supposition. 

Fig. I. represents an army-worm, magnified to show clearly the 
peculiar arrangement of the stripes. The full description of these, 
as of other scientific details, uninteresting to the general reader, is 


168 


reserved for the appendix. It will be sufficient to say here that the 
larva is a rather dingy looking caterpillar, striped with dirty white 
and dusky, and has a good deal the general appearance of the in- | 
sect most commonly known as “the cut-worm,” differing chiefly in 
the absence of certain shining little black humps or dots, each of 
which in the various species of “cut-worms” is armed with a hair. 


THE ARMY-WORM PUPA. FIG. II. 


So soon as the army-worm has reached its full larva growth, 
like all the other species of butterflies and moths comprising the 
great order, Lepidoptera, it casts its shin, or properly speaking, the 
horny external skeleton to which all its muscles are attached, and 
assumes an entirely different shape, color and appearance. All 
the Lepidoptera, whether this state be prolonged for eight or nine 
months, or whether it only last a few weeks, lie dormant the whole 
time, and eat nothing; and the army-worm is no exception to the 
rule. My specimens lay under ground about fifteen days, and all 
that I have known bred by others lay about the same time. . The 
time, of course, varies with different species, each having its pecu- 
liar arrangements. In order to prepare for this change, like a 
ereat number of the larve of moths, it burrows under ground 
and by turning its body repeatedly arpund in the moist earth forms 
a hollow cell within which the change takes place. Occasionally 
it scarcely penetrates beneath the surface, and forms a rude cell 
amongst the dry herbage at the roots of the grass on which it feeds. 

Fig. II shows the insect in this stage of its development. Asis 
almost universally the case with the pupe of moths, it is rounded 
at the head and pointed at the tail, the outlines and general appear- 
ence differing but slightly in the different species. Like most of 
them, too, it is of a shining mahogany color, with the limbs wrap- 
ped up like a “baby in swaddling cloths,” which is the meaning of 
the Latin term pupa—so strangely like the Indian papoose. It has 
a single thorn at the end of the tail, in which respect it agrees with 
all other Lepidopterous pupee with which I am acquainted, except 
that of a small undescribed Pyralide bred by me this year, which 
has a truncate tail with szw thorns, like the pupa of Zabanus (horse- 
fly) among the Diptera. 

It isa curious fact, illustrating the gross ignorance on the sub- 
ject of Natural History which generally prevails in this country, 
that a correspondent of a popular Agricultural Journal, referring 
to the army-worms going under ground, should have grayely an- 
nounced that “they are dying very fast!!” 


THE ARMY-WORM MOTH. FIG. II. 


Having passed its appointed time in the pupa state, the army- 
worm now sheds its horny skeleton once more, just as a lobster or 
a crawfish sheds its calcareous skeleton, and comes forth a winged 
moth or “miller,” with no jaws fitted for mastication such as it for- 
merly possessed, but furnished in their stead with a long tongue 


169 


or pr 
is ccd, up when not at use under the head. This sudden 
change trom a biting larva to a sucking imugo is characteristic of 
the Lepidoptera, and does not occur in any other order of insects. 
it is in this state alone, also, as with all other insects, that its re 
productive organs are fully dev eloped ; and, like them too, having 
arrived at this state, it dies without undergoing further change. 

The remarkable metamorphosis of a “groveling worm into @ 
soaring moth or butterfly was noticed many © thousand years ago by 
that imaginative people, the ancient Greeks; and as the same Sword 
in their language happens with a slight variation of accent, (Psyché 
and Psy’che,) to signify either a soud or a butterfly, they very nat- 
urally traced a fanciful analogy between the immortality of the 
soul and the ethereal flight of a butterfly, and embodied it in 
the pretty legend of € Cupid and Psyche. Grave modern theologt 
ans, amongst whom Bishop Butler may be named, have been mis- 
led by the same illusion, and have adduced it seriously as a proof 
that the soul of man never dies. They ought to have learnt the 
rudiments of Natural History before they ventured on so ticklish 
a subject. Nothing is more certain than that—so far as there can 
be any analogy between a vertebrate animal like man, and an an- 
nulate animal like a butterfly or moth—the milk feeding touthless 
baby is analogous to the leaf-fecding, tooth-bearing caterpillar, the 
flesh-and- breac teeding tooth-bearing child is analogous to the 
toothless non-eating pupa, and the fully developed man or woman, 
with definite sexual peculiarities and perfect sexual powers, is an 
alogous to the fully developed butterfly with all its sexual organs 
and sexual propensities complete. Sv that the analogy, such as if 
is, proves directly the contrary of what its authors intended it 
should prove; for if it be worth anything at all, it would necessa- 
rily follow, that as dies the butterfly, so dies the man. 

The color of the front wings of the ar my-worm moth is a light 
reddish-brown or fawn color, marked with black and white as in the 
engraving. The time at which it appears varies according to the 
latitude from the beginning of June to the mid¢le of July. How 
long each moth lives I have no definite information ; but from an- 
alogy it may be roughly estimated at from three to five weeks, 
Many, of course, meet an untimely death from the jaws of the nt 
merous species of Lbellulina or dragou-flies, (popularly called 
snake-feeders, mosquito- hawks, and Devils’ darning needles,) which 
are perpetual! iy flying round seeking for their prey. Many are de- 
stroyed by other cannibal insects, and by spiders, toads, frogs, bats 
and birds. The residue pair and deposit their eggs where nature 
teaches them that those eggs will have a chance to live. Owing to 
the very small number of army-worms which I succeeded in raisin 
to maturity, from causes to be hereafter explained, I could not afford 
to destroy a female so as to ascertain the precise number of evess 
but from analogy I should put it at about two hundred. ‘The 
moths fly readily and strongly by daylight; at least they do so 


—18 


170 


when they are disturbed; and I took a specimen by night in a 
building into which it was attracted by a brilliant light. They 
may therefore be classed as semidiurnal. 

Whether onr Illinois army-worm be, or be not, identical with 
the army-worm of the southern States, is a question yet to be 
solved. Until this current year nobody had any scientific know- 
ledge of the species I am now illustrating ; and of the southern in- 
sect there is absolutely nothing whatever known with certainty. 
The probability is, that several distinct species have been con- 
founded under this popular name in the South, and that one of them 
is identical with our insect. It certainly is an encouraging sign of 
the progress of entomological discovery in this State, that a noxious 
insect of primary importance should have been, for the first time, 
traced through all its transformations in the year 1861 by no less 
than four citizens of Illinois to my certain knowledge—I refer to 
Mr. Cyrus Thomas of Murphysboro, Mr. Emery of the Prairie 
Farmer, Col. Dougherty of Jonesboro, and last and least myself. 

Hitherto we have been treading upon firm ground. We are 

now approaching debatable territory. It will be noticed that I 
have assumed throughout that the army-worm moth deposits its 
eggsin June or July, and that those eggs lie dormant until the 
following spring. My friend Mr. Thomas thinks that these eggs, 
instead of lying dormant, hatch out some reasonable time after they 
are laid, and that from them arises a second brood of army-worms 
which passes the winter in the pupa state, the moths arising from 
which in the following spring lay the eggs which produce the well 
known May and June brood. This is confessedly the arrangement 
with several species of moths; whether it be so with the army-worm 
can only be demonstrated by actual experiment, the time fur which 
has not yet transpired. The point is of the utmost practical im- 
portance ; for if the eggs of the army-worms of May and June are 
not laid till March or April, it would obviously be of no avail to 
burn over meadows in the winter, in order to destroy eggs which 
were not yet deposited there. I make no apology therefore for 
presenting the arguments on both sides at some length. 
_ Mr. Thomas says in a letter tome: “If the moth deposits her 
eggs on the grass, then the eggs must hatch before the winter, as 
this is too precarious a situation I think for nature to adopt, though 
many select leaves, ete.” Now the common web-caterpillar of the 
apple tree (Clesiocampa Americana, Uarris,) assumes the moth 
state about the first of July and lays its eggs some short time after- 
wards in the well known cylindrical rings upon apple twigs. Yet 
although those’ eges are exposed on high to the heat of summer 
and the cold of winter, they do not hatch out till the following May, 
and they are never, that I have heard of, killed by the cold weath- 
er. I might quote other instances, but one such seems enough. 
It is but candid to add that originally, befure I had closely looked 
into the matter, I inclined towards Mr. Thomas’s opinion. 

The following are my reasons for thinking that it is impossible 


Ach 


that our species should be double-brooded—at least in Illinois ; for 
certain species which are single-brooded in the northern States are 
double-brooded down south : 

Lirst—They are never found in tame grass meadows the year 
after seeding; yet if the moth deposits her egg in the spring, there 
ean be no reason why she should invariably select old meadows. 
This fact is well known, and I was assured of the truth of it by Col. 
Dougherty. 

Second—They are scarcely ever found on wheat or rye, except 
where tame grass meadows exist from which they have traveled. 
Yet as the caterpillar eats rye and fall wheat greedily, why should 
the moth, if she lays her eggs in the spring, pass over these crops? 
[ inquired of a great number of farmers in the army-worm country, 
and they all agreed that wheat and rye were never taken except 
where there were meadows in the vicinity. It is but fair hewever 
to add that F. Beatty of Knox county, in the Prairie Farmer of 
June 27, states that the army-worm in his neighborhood ‘in every 
instance first originated or appeared in a field of rye.” But per- 
haps Mr. Beatty was mistaken. 

Third—No man in the army-worm country ever heard of a se- 
cond brood of them making their appearance. I inquired partic- 
warly of Col. Dougherty as to this point, and he said he had never 
known such a thing. Besides, what could such a second brood 
find to eat, say in July or August? The tame grass and the oats 
and the wheat and the rye are all then cut, or at all events to tough 
and hard for the jaws of a youthful caterpillar; and if they got on 
uncut grass or uncut grain, or even on the corn, they certainly 
could not escape notice at harvest time. 

fourth—As a general rule the group of moths to which the 
army-worm belongs (the Voctu@ or owlet moths) are single-brooded. 
I cannot at present call to mind a single exception. 

Such are the grounds upon which I had based my conclusion; 
and before I left Southern Illinois, I had already expounded to 
several of my friends the method of counterworking the army-worm 
which is based upon that conclusion, viz: burning meadows over 
every winter to destroy the eggs. Judge of my surprise and grati- 
fication, then, when on going home in the cars I fell in with Mr, 
Kirkham, an intelligent produce buyer of Gallatin county, and 
learnt from him that what Lord Bacon would call a complete exper- 
wmentum crucis of the truth of my theory had been accidentall 
tried in his own neighborhood. The case was this: Mr. Welling- 
ton Wood, of the same county, was burning brush heaps near his 
timothy meadow, and by chance letting the fire get away from him 
had one half of his meadow burned over, while the other hait re- 
mained unburned. The latter portion was afterwards “completely 
taken” by the worm; the former had no worms at all on it, and 
was saved without much ditliculty, by ditching between it and the 
infected district. 

Mr. Kirkham could not recollect the precise month when the 


172 


above occurrence took place, but as farmers do not burn brush- 
heaps in plowing time, it must have been sometime in the dead of 
the year. It is but right that I should add that I obtained these 
facts from Mr. Kirkham defore I expounded my theory to him. 

Now if you still cling to the belief that the army-worm moth 
does not lay its eggs for the June crop till the spring, upon what 
supposition can you explain the above facts? Why should the moths 
have selected uniformly the unburnt timothy to lay their eggs on, 
and uniformly have passed over the burnt portion, which would then 
be far more green and inviting ? 

The western naturalist above referred to as arguing that army- 
worms bred from army-werms, and not from moths, was led to 
adopt his strange theory from the circumstance of finding them 
abundant on one side ofa brook, and entirely absent on the other. 
Such a case might be easily accounted for, on my theory, by sup- 
posing that fire had run into the meadow, and had been stopped by 
the brook. 

Mr. Glover himself says, “he has himselfseen a large clover and 
grass field, near Columbus, Georgia, which was divided by a wagon 
road into two parts, one side of which was ertirely consumed by 
the grass worm, [a species of analogous habits to the army-worm, 
ficured by Mr. Glover in an unpublished plate kindly communi- 
cated to me,] wuile the other half was not touched.” This re- 
markable phenomenon may be explained on the same hypothesis. 
Mr. Glover himself shows why the ezterpillars did not cross the 
road, for he says “it was colonized by thousands of ants, that seized 
every caterpillar that dared to cross their imaginary Mason and 
Dixon’s line, dragged them to their nests or forts, and confiscated 
them totheir own use as contraband of war.” 

It is certainly possible that a few of the army-worm moths, in- 
stead of coming out at the normal time, in June or July, may lie 
in the pupa state till the following fall or spring. Nature makes 
such provisions for the permanent continuance of species with many 
of the Lepidoptera, as, fur example, with the Geometer, or span-worm 
moth, commonly known as the canker-worm, (Anisopteryx ver- 
nata, Peck,) a few of which come out in the fall and winter, 
and the main bulk of them the next March. To quote a case more 
in point. Some years ago I bred fifty or sixty of the common noe- 
turide, or owlet-moth, ( Acronycta oblinita, Guénée,) and I distinctly 
remember that some two or three of them came out in the moth 
state in the fall, and the remainder not till the following spring. 
But this is the exception and not the rule, and in a practical point 
of view can make little or no difference in the case of the army- 
worm moth. 

It will be noticed that I lay no stress whatever upon the numer- 
ous assertions by unscientific men of the appearance of army-worm 
moths in large flocks in the spring of the year. There are hun- 
dreds of moths which an ordinary observer could not distinguish 
from our insect, even if they were placed side by side; and one 


ee 


ee ee 


173 


witness, who is quite positive as to the identity of his “miller” with 
the army-worm moth, clearly shows, out of his own mouth, that he 
was mistaken, for he describes itas about “¢hrce g quarters of an inch 
across the wings.” 

Mr. T. EHull, of Bond county, recollects having seen, when a boy, 
army-worms invade the farm of his uncle, in Madison county, 
somewhere about ’26, there being no tame grass meadows in the 
neighborhood, and the prairie being always | in those days burned 
over. But out of the inany dozen species of native grasses, there 
may possibly be sume one on which they feed, and as there was an 
old salt lake one and a half miles off in the timber, there may have 
been an old Indian camp there, and consequently a sward of blue 
grass. 

On the whole, I think we may safely come to the conclusion that 
the army-worm is not double-brooded, and if ‘so, we know that the 
main crop of eggs must be deposited sometime in June, July, or 
August, and eenerally, at the present day, in the loce lities where 
the “caterpillars make their first appearance, viz: in tame grass 
meadows. It is not impossible that some eggs are laid on uncut 
wheat or rye, but the plow comes along before the fullowing spring, 
when in the course of nature they would hatch out, aud buries 
them so thateven if they should hatch out, unless the farmer should 
injudiciously grow two snecessive crops of small grain, the minute 
caterpillars have no suitable food close at hand, and, consequently, 
being too small and weak to travel, perish of starvation. They 
could never be deposited on newly sown fall grain, except in the 

ase before referred to, of a few pupee hatching out mouths after their 
usual time. The p:actical inference to Le ‘drawn is, thatir THE 
MEADOWS ARE BURNT OVER IN THE WINTER THE GREAT BULK OF EGGS 
MUST PERISH, and of course, “FEW EGGS, FEW ARMY-WORMS.” 


PARASITES OF THE ARMY-\, ORM, 


The following passages are extracted trom the “Origin of Spe- 
cies,” by my old college acquaintance, Mr. Charles Darwin. The 
whole chapter in which they occur is well worth the perusal of ev- 
ery student of Natural History, and well illustrates the battle for 
life which is constantly waging all around us: 


“A struggle for existence inevitably follows from the high rate at which all organic 
beings tend to increase. Every being which, during its natural lifetime, produces sey- 
eral eggs or seeds, must suffer destruction during some period of its life : otherwise, on 
the principle of geometrical increase, its numbers would quickly become so inordinate- 
ly great that no country could support the product. * * * There is no exception 
to the rule that every organic being naturally increases at so high a rate, that, if not de- 
stroyed, the earth would soon be covered by the progeny of a single pair. Even slow- 
breeding man has doubled in twenty-five yea s; and at this rate, in a few thousand 
years, there would literally not be standing room for his progeny. ‘* * * Th looking 
at Nature, it is most necessary to k« ep the for going considerations always in mind— 
never to forget that every single organic being around us may be said to be striving to 
the utmost to increase in number; that each lives bya struggle at some period of its 
life; that heavy destruction inevitably falls either upon the young or old, during each 
generati n, or at recurrent intervals. Liyhten any check, mitigate the destruction ever so 
little, and the number of the species will almost instantaneousl 'y increase to any amount ” 


174 


I now propose to show from my own very limited experince, 
that these general principles apply also in the case of the army- 
worm, I have obtained from army-worm larvee no less than four 
distinct species of parasitic insects, which burrow into their living 
flesh and finally oceasion their death. All of these occurred in very 
large numbers, and in various parts of the State. I have also ob- 

tained two other distinct species, which are parasitic upon the par- 

asites, burrowing in turn into their flesh, and feeding upon their 
titaha, Wondert ful as it may seem to those not famihar with the 
beautiful science of Natural History, there can actually exist three 
living animals, each moving, breathing and eating inside the bodies 
one of the other, the innermost one, “of course, ‘becoming the tri- 
umphant survivor of his two living envelops. Nor is this anything 
unusual or abnormal—it is almost the ever yday experience of every 
one who has paid much attention to the breeding of insects, and 
watching them through their transformations. 

But in so com plicated a system, parasites preying upon and check- 
ing the army-worms, and secondary parasites preying upon and 
checking the primary ones, we might, @ priorz, reasonably expect 
that considerable fluctuations would oceasionally occur. If, for 
exainple, from some peculiarities of weather, the appearance of 
one of the primary parasites is delayed a few weeks in the spring 
of the year, the army worm will escape its attacks for that one sea- 
son and multiply far beyond the average. The same thing will 
happen if the secondary parasites have been more than usually nu- 
merous in the preceding season, so as to diminish the numbers of 
the primary ones. If, on the other hand, the primary parasites are 
unusually numerous, the army-worm will be diminished in num- 
bers beyond the average, and the same result will happen if the se- 
condary parasites have become unusually scarce. And this is 
the actual experience of farmers: in particular years arimy-worms 
swarm; in other years there is not one to be seen. 

So tar from being astonished at such a result, the miracle would 
be, if each individnat species of insect of the thirty thonsand which 
exist in the United States, uniformly maintained the same exact 
numbers. The scheme of Nature may be compared to a vast 
system of vibrating springs, interlacing and pressing upon one 
another in every direction. You cannot lighten the pressure of 
a single spring without reacting upon all the others, and occa- 
sionally causing some one of them to fly upwards with a sudden 
jerk. “And this is the actual experience of every collector of in- 
sects. Not a year elapses but several dozen insects, which in ordi- 
nary years are scarce, appear in great numbers. 

As to the question whether or not army-worms will occur in 
considerable numbers next year, within the limits of the State, it is 
impossible to arrive at any detinite conclusion. if parasites worked 
on them everywhere as extensively as they did at Bloomington, 
they could not abound, so as to do much i injury, in 1862. But I 
can only give the statistics of their parasites for this single point, 


PRIMARY AND SECONDARY PARASITES OF THE ARMY-WORM. 


Fig 5. 

> 

0 | | 
yet 


<i Nice 


Le Fae 
Fig. 4—Senometopia militaris. New species. Parasite of the Army-worm. “oN 
Fiz. 5—Its puparium. 
Fig. 6—Pezomachus minimus. New species. Parasite of the Army-worm. 
Fig. 7—Mass of its cocoons. 
Fig. 8—Chalcis albifrons. Newspecies. Parasite of Pezomachus minimus. 
Fig. 9—Mesochorus vitrens. New species Parasite of the Army-worm. 
Fig. 10—Microgaster militaris. New species. Parasite of the Army-worm. mr 


Fig. 11—Glyphe viridascens. New species. Parasite of some undetermined parasite — 
of the Army-worm. 


; 


To face page 175. 


175 


and no private individual can be expected to do more. If the 
State had seen fit to appoint a Board of Entomologists, to visit eve- 
ry county in the Sta’e and collect reliable information as to the 
relative numbers of the eaters and the eatees, we should then be 
able to forsee the future. At present it is all guess work. 

We will now take up, in as much detail as our space permits, the 
separate species of parasites above referred to. Full notices of each 
will be found in the Appendix, intended for the use of those only 
who study entomology as ascience. Probably the general reader 
will consider descriptions such as these needlessly minute. The 
naturalists of the last century were of the same opinion, and the 
consequence is that their brief descriptions often apply equally well 
to tour or five entirely distinct species. 


RED TAILED TACHINA FLY. FIG. IV. ITS PUPA. FIG. V. 


This insect is not a Aymenopterous or four-winged fly, like the 
great majority of parasites, but is a dipterous or two-wingcd fly, 
belunging to the same order as the musketoes, horse-flies, house 
flies and bot-flies. It is not furnished with a piercer at the end of 
its tail, like the hymenopterous ichneumon-flies, adapted to penetrate 
the flesh of its victim and lay its eggs in it, but nature has provided 
it with a cement, with which it glues its eggs on to the shoulders 
of the caterpillar, externally. Of titty or sixty army-worms which 
I brought with me from Bloomington, all but two had these eggs, 
from one to six in number, fastened on the upper surface of the two 
or three anterior segments of the body. Instinct appears to teach 
the mother fly that if she places her eggs further back, the little 
maggots, as they hatch ont and begin to penetrate the flesh, wil) 
be felt by the victim and seized by its powerful jaws, as I have seen 
wood-feeding caterpillars seize, and worry like a dog, ants that at 
tacked them. These eggs are much about the shape and color of 
those of the common blow-fly or flesn-fly ; and some species of these 
last resemble the Tachinas a good deal, but are distinguishable by 
the little tine hair or bristle which springs from the middle of the 
last joint of their club-shaped horns, or antennee, being feathered, 
and not naked as shown in the engraving. By hoiding up a com- 
mon house-fly to the light, this feather7ng may be easily seen, even 
without a glass. Now if Nature had been a dunce, she would have 
manufactured the cement with which these eggs are attached of 
gum, and then the tirst heavy dew or shower of rain would have 
washed them off; but as she always understands her business, she 
has composed it of some resinm which is perfectly insoluble in water. 
Wishing to free some of my specimens from these parasitic eggs, 
so as to procure a greater number of moths, I tried in vain to de 
tachi them with warm saliva; and from the wriggling of the un- 
grateful worms, I was unable to puncture the eggs with a fine pin 
and let out their contents, without puncturing the worms too, and 
thereby destroying them. 


176 


From the fifty or sixty army worms obtained in Central Illinois 
I bred exactly fifty-four Tachinas and two moths. Now these army- 
worms averaged about three eggs apiece, and consequently two- 
thirds of the eggs of the Tachina must have perished without arri- 
ving at maturity. The first that hatched out would get the start of 
its neighbors and starve them to death. I once observed in the 
burrows of some wood-feeding beetle an ichneumon pupa, spun u 
in its cocoon, and by its side two or three small starved larvee, wiih 
would necessarily perish, as the wood-boring larva on which they 
had fed was entirely consumed. With such exuberant profusion 
does Nature sometimes provide for the carrying out of her wise and 
benevolent intentions. 

My Tachina eggs, so far as I noticed, did not hatch till the larva 
had gone underground; but from information received from Mr. 
Emery, I have reason to believe that, under certain cirenmstances, 
this, or an allied species, hatches out above gronnd, adhering ex- 
ternally, and “growing rapidly while its victim decreases in size.” 
They uniformly devoured the larva before it transformed into the 
pupa state. The time for the entire transformation of such as I 
experimented upon from egg to fly, was from tifteen to nineteen 
days. Meat-flies and honse-flies breed with similar rapidity. 

Before I had bred these Tachinas to maturity, I was informed by 
my friend and brother naturalist, Dr. Short, of Union county, that 
“Jefferson Russell, an intelligent farmer, of Williamson county, 
had repeatedly, on damp cloudy mornings, watched a large, bluish 

een fly, about the size of a blow-fly, attacking the army-worm, and 
a a its eggs on the shoulders of the victim, as he ascertain- 
ed by adouble lens. As they were attacked, the army-worms kept 
dropping to the ground and gathering in clusters, or hiding under 
clods, until finally the wheat on which.they occurred was entirely 
free from them.” Mr. Frick also, the Mayor of Jonesboro, to whom 
Tam under obligations generally, for his kind assistance in further- 
ing my objects, told me that he had himself noticed similar flies, 
similarly occupied. Thus it is proved that this, or some other spe- 
cies of the Tachinas, infested the army-worm this year in William- 
son, Union end McLean counties, and, as our species has also at- 
tacked the army-worm in Ohio,* probably throughont the State. It 
is the same thing in Maryland, for my friend, Dr. John G. Morris, 
of Baltimore, the distinguished American Lepidopterist, writes me 
word that “he has on several occasions employed all his logic and 
knowledge, (but in vain,) in trying to convince some farmers in the 
lower counties that the deg black jly which came forth from the 
[army] worm was not the real mother insect.” It seems that the 
fools are not all dead yet, even in Maryland; and in our western 
backwoods we have still many men who believe that the grasshop- 
pers are the mothers of the army-worms. ; 

‘the species depicted in Fig. IV, in magnified dimensions—the 


*I am indebted for this fact to my friend Baron Osten Sacken, the learned Russian 
Dipterologist. 


177 


line showing its real length—is colored black and gray, with a 
satiny lustrenpon the hinder part of the body, and the last abdom- 
inal joint of a dull brick red, whence I have given it the English 
name of “red tailed.” Fig. V shows the way in which the dark 
mahogany colored pupa-skin splits open to admit the exit of the 
perfect fly. Tachina-flies may often be noticed flying low among 
herbage, with a loud buzzing noise, like that of a bee, seeking cat- 
erpillars to fasten their eggs on. There are two very common spe- 
cies which are nearly twice the length of the red-tailed Tachina, 
and no species known to me is much smaller than the house-fly. 


PARASITIC ICHNEUMON-FLIES AND THEIR PARASITES. FIGURES VI TO XI. 


This article has already been extended to s9 unreasonable a 
length, that it must suffice to say that the remaining illustrations all 
represent tour-winged flies of the great /ehnewmon family, or of the 
almost equally extensive Chaleis family, which agrees generally in 
its habits with the Ichneumons, but differs in having wings almost 
destitute of nervures and in spinning no cocouns. Ilence, when a 
chalcis is bred from a cocoon of white silk, such as the ichneumon- 
flies generally spin, we know that it is parasitic on the ichneumon; 
just as we should know, if we found a snake in a bird’s nest, that 
the snake did not build the nest, but was a mere intruder there. 

It is the general habit of larvee infested with ichnenmon-flies to 
attach their claws firmly in death to the substance on which they 
stand. Itis also the general habit uf the ichneumons to spin their 
cocoons on or close to the carcass of their victim. Hence if an ich- 
neumonized army-worm happens to perish on a stalk of wheat or 
grass far above the surface of the ground, the parasites, for the bet- 
ter security of their cocoons, attach them together in symmetrical 
form—as shown in Fig. VI{-—around or upon the grass stem. The 
very same species, if their victim happen to die on the ground, will 
either build their cocoons on his shrunkand shrivelled body, or spin 
them separately amongst the surrounding rubbish, attaching <.em 
by the same flossy kind of silk as that with which the common silk- 
worm surrounds its cocoon, When a symmetrical mass of cocoons 
is built, this superabundant flossy material, as shown in Fig. VII, 
forms a milk-white cottony envelope, entirely covering the cocoons. 
In the figure this is stripped off in front, to show the arrangement. 

Unlike the Zachina family, the Ichneumon-flies vary greatly in 
size, according to the species, some being nearly five inches long, 
including the piercer of the female, and some so small as to be 
barely visible to the nakod eye. I have bred as many as ninety- 
nine individuals of a species of chalcis from a single lepidopterous 
pupa, but little larger than that of the army-worm. The larger 
species of Ichneumons deposit a single egg in a single larva, or, if 
they deposit more, the stronger outgrow and overpuwer the 
weaker. 

Fig. VI represents an undescribed ichneumon-fly—the left figure 
being the female and the right the male—remarkable for both sexes 


178 


being entirely wingless. They have somewhat the appearance of 
ants, butimay be readily distinguished by their antenne not being 
elbowed in the middle. They occurred at Centralia, and as Mr. 
Emery thinks, from whom I obtained the cocoons, also in Cham- 
paign county. Fig. VII shows a mass of their cocoons, enveloped 
in floss, with one cocoon detached. I have bred precisely the same 
species at Ruck Island, from cocoons: not symmetrically built to- 
gether, and with no floss surrounding them. 

Fig. VILL isa chalcis, parasitic on the above, and therefore from 
the sane localities. The species occurs sparingly at Rock Island. 

Figures [X and X are two species of ichneumon-flies, from co- 
coons loose, or but slightly connected together, forwarded to me by 
S. Doyle. Schuyler county. 

Fig. XL is one of the great Chaleis family, bred from two masses 
of ichneumon cocoons enveloped in floss, received from §. Doyle, 
of Schuyler county. The mother chalcis-fly had been so diligent 
in depositing her eggs in the numerous ichneumon larvee living in- 
side the army-worm, that not a single one arrived at maturity to tell 
me what species he belonged to. 

Col. Dougherty, of Jonesboro, in Unicn county, informed me 
that from eight army-worms, which he attempted to rear, he raised 
only two moths, the remainder, from his description, having evi- 
dently been eaten up by ichneumon-flies, that afterwards spun their 
cocvons on the shriveled skins. I arrived in Southern IJlinois so 
long after the army-worms had gone underground, that I was una- 
ble myself to find any ichneumon cocoons in the intected fields, al- 
thongh I searched diligently. But the above fact proves that they 
were there, although the species cannot be determined. 


The object of the above very imperfect sketch of the insect foes 
of the army-worm will be attained, if 1 succeed in impressing upon 
the minds of intelligent agriculturists the real nature of the battle 
which their friends, the cannibal and parasitic insects, are perpetu- 
ally waging in their behalf against their foes, the plant-teeders. 
There have now been introduced to the notice of the reader no less 
than four distinct parasitic insects, which prey on the army-worm 
in prodigious numbers; and doubtless a more thorough investiga- 
tion would discover many other species. While the farmer isin 
bed and asleep, tliese tiny creatures are doing more for him than: 
the united labors of a million of men could accomplish. Tt is on 
the same principle and through similar agencies that 6ther noxious 
insects are kept within reasonable limits. There are very few plant- 
feeding insects that do not produce as many as a hundred eggs, and 
if a wise Providence did not take care that the great bulk of these 
should perish before arriving at maturity, the world in twelve 
months would be a desert. . 


BENJ. D. WALSH. 
Rook Istanp, July 31, 1861. 


179 


APPENDIX, 


The science of Entomology in this country is at present drowned 
in a flood of synonyms. Halfa dozen different authors often de- 
scribe the same insect under half a dozen different names, until the 
result to the neophyte is utter confusion and bewilderment. Much 
has been done towards obviating these difficulties by the publica- 
tion of the Smithsonian Catalogues; but munch still remains to be 
done. I should not now venture to name and describe the few 
species below referred to as new, if it had not happened that the 
smaller species of the very extensive group of insects to which they 
belong—although of the utmost importance in an economic point 
of view—are almost entirely neglected by writers on American En- 
tomology. I have had recourse, so far as the very brief time at my 
disposal allowed me, to the assista ce of eastern correspondents, 
whose favors I have duly noticed in the proper place, aud whom I 
take this opportunity to thank for their kind attentions. My own 
private Library, however, is very limited; and I can certily only 
that the species named by me are not to be found in Harris on Inj. 
Insects, in Dr. Fitch’s five valuable Reports, or in any of the works 
of Thomas Say. : 


ORDER LEPIDOPTERA. 
FAMILY NOCTUAD#. 


Leveanra unipuncta, Haworth. Tre Army-worm morn. Fig. 
Ili, atterwards described as ZL. ertranea, by Guenee. For the 
identification of our species with Guenee’s, I am jointly indebted 
to Dr. John G. Morris, of Baltimore, author of the Smithsonian 
Catalogue of Lepidoptera, and to Dr Asa Fitch, the Entomologist 
of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society. It is to Dr. Fitch, how- 
ever, that we western “bug-hunters” are exclusively obliged for 
disentanvling the intricate synonyms of the species, and identify- 
ing the L. wnipuncta of Haworth with the Z. extranea of Guenee. 
According to the established scientific etiquette. Haworth’s name 
and description, heing prior in time, take precedence of Guenee’s. 
The following details are from Dr. Fitch’s able article in the 
“Oountry Gentleman” of July 25th, kindly forwarded to me by the 
author: 


Long ago, a preserved specimen of this moth found its way into the then celebrated 
collection of Mr. Francillon in London. Upon the breaking up and sale of that collee- 
tion, this specimen passed into the possession of Mr. Haworth, who, not doubting but 
that it had been captured in England, described it very briefly, in the year 1810, in his 
Lepidoptera Brittannica, prge 174, naming it Noctua unipuncta, or the white speck, by 
which name it has ever since been referred to by Engli-h authors and collectors, save that 
a new generic name, Leucania, replaces thit of Moctua. It appears to have been 
through inadvertency that Mr. Stephens changed this name to impuncta, when he came 


180 


to describe the species in 1829, in his British Entomology, Hausteilata, Vol. III, page 
80. Later, in 1850, he refers to it under its original name, in the List of Lepidoptera 
in the British Museum, p. 289, it having now been ascertained that it was a North 
American and nut a British inseet. Guenee appears to have overlooked this species of 
the English authors. In his valuable work on tie Lepidoptera, (Vol. V, p- 77—Paris, 
1852.) he regards it as a new species, naming it Leucania extranea. 

It is possible, however, after all, that Francillon’s specimen may 
have been actually captured in England, tor the insect has recently 
been met with there in two several instances, as I learn from the 
following extract from Stanton’s Entomological Annual tor 1859, 
which has been obligingly communicated to me by Dr. Morris. The 
article is accompanied by a figure: 

*Atthe October meeting of the Entomological Society Mr. Bond exhibited a speci- 
men of thisinsect, [L. extranea, G.,] from the Isle of Wight, and Dr. Allchin exhibit- 
ed a specimen taken near Lewes on the 9th of September. The insect had not previ- 
ously been recorded as European. * * * A specimen has occurred at Madcira this 
summer, and curiously enough was forwarded to this country to be nam d. This cer- 


tainly confirms the idea that the unusal flight hitherwards of this extraneous noctua has 
not been confined to our own shores. 


The author of the above evidently leans to the idea that the 
winged insect has been carried alive across the Atlantic by the pre- 
vailing westerly winds. It would seem more probable that the 
eggs have been transported in the transhipment of living botanical 
specimens, or in some analagous way. 

For the benetit of those who, like myself, do not possess a copy 
of Guenee, I subjoin his generic and specitic characters of our in- 
sect, which have been most obligingly furnished to me by my friend 
Dr. Morris. I translate from the original French, adding in brack- 
ets [ ] such further particulars as are applicable to our species: 


Gen. Levcanta, Ochs. Qaterpillars cylindrical, smooth, pale, with fine longitudinal 
lines, and a sub-globalar head, living on grasses and hiding by day either in tufts [of 
grass] or in the interior ofcut stems, without eating the pith ofthem. [Feed by night 
and also in the forenoon.]  Chrysalises ordinarily contained in cocoons underground. 
[Spin no cocoon.] Antenne [of the imago] pretty short, pubescent, with two stronger 
ciliations upon each joint of the male, sometimes serrate with whorls of ciliations. 
Palpi pretty thick, connivent, with furry hairs and with the last joint very short. [The 
two firstjoints embracing the f.ont; the third decidedly descending.] Thorax smooth, 
subquadrite. Abdomen smooth, pretty long, garnished with hairs at its base above, 
and sometimes on its sides, [aud also at the tip in both sexes.] Legs more or less hairy. 
Tongue well developed. Front wings entire, with the tip more or less pointed, sel- 
dom having the “ines” and “spots” very distinct; the latter being almost always re- 
duced to a cellular point (a un point cellulaire.) In repose the upper wings are roofed 
at a very steep angle. 


L. extRanreA, Guenee. The front wings [on the upper side] are very pointed at the 
tips, of a g-ay more or less reddish, sometimes whitish, much specked with black atoms, 
[the bas] half of the costal margin being lighter.] |The two ordinary ‘‘-pots” are dis- 
tinguished in the cellule by a color brighter or less tinged with reddish. Under the 
“kidney-shaped” spot is a white point, indistinctly surrounded by blacki-h. There are 
no visible traces of “lines,” but the series of black points which follows the eubitus,”* is 
often very distinct. An oblique black streak, [shaded off gradually towards the ter- 


*In Guenee’s peculiar nomenclature, as I learn from Dr. Morris, the eubitus ( Coudee 
or ligne coudre) is one of several curved “lines” of color which are supposed to exist in 
the norm :] noctuade wing, so called from its being strongly elbowed. 1t must be care- 
fully di-tinguished from what is generally known by authors as the cubitus or sub-costal 
nervure. In our insect the “series of black points” referred to may be seen more dis- 


181 


minal margin, ] starts from this “line,” and ascends’to the apex [of the wing.] and with 
the form of the wings principally characterizes this species. [All the nervures—but 
expecially what in ‘the Neuroptera is called the Median by my friend Dr. Hagen, 
(Monogr. Libellul. vol. I, plate 1, and vol II, plate 22,)—are more or less white, “and 
very disti ctly so towards their tips. Just inside the fringe there is a series ¢ f vight 
black dots, one between every two nervures. The white spot before referred to is al- 
ways on the trifurcation of the median” nervure, and generally of an irr gular thom- 
boidal forin.] The hind wings are a little transparent, gray, with the terminal border 
and the neryures blackish, [the blackish border shading evadually into the gray. The 
fringe of both pair of wings is pale, with a narrow dusk y band inside of its iwiddle.] 
The sexes se: weely differ. 


The under side of the wings, which Guenee does not notice, is of 
an opalescent yellowish- white, with the terminal margin widely 
freckled with numerous confluent dusky specks, so as to give the 
appearance of a broad dusky band with a definite outline. The 
costal margins are also lightly freckled with similar specks. The 
basal half of this band in the front w ing is darker th:n the termi- 
nal half, except towards the costa, where there is a roundish dusky 
spot. The basal edge of the band in the hind wing has a small 
longitudinal dusky spot on the costal and on the bifurcations of the 
sub-costal nervure, on the principal or middle “sector” of the “are,” 
the two exterior sectors of which are often, one or both of them, 
obsolete, and also on the trifurcations of the median nervure—ma- 
king in all seven spots. The nervures in both wings are of the 
same color as the portion of the wing which they traverse, except 
the “are” or semicircular transverse nerve in the hind wing, con- 
necting the sub-costal with the median, which is widely dusky. 
The fringe of both wings is yellowish-white, witha few dusky dots, 
especially towards the tips. Inside the fringe there is in the front 
wing a series of eight, and in the hind wing a series of six black 
dots, commencing from the tips, and placed one betw een every two 
nervures, including only the principal “sector,” of the lower wing. 

The thorax, head, palpi and antennee are of ‘the same color as the 
general upper surface of the front wings, the antenne towards the 
base being lighter. The eyes are hairy and of a dull greenish 
color. The thorax has a narrow band of a lighter tint in front, 
much curved forwards in the middle, and separated from the dark- 
er tint behind it, by two very distinct narrow bands or lines—the 
anterior very ight, the posterior very dark. The abdomen above 
is of the same gray color as the hind wings above. Beneath, the 
prothorax is dusky-gray ; the thorax and «bdomen of an ash-gray, 
the latter speckled with a few black atoms, and with a row of three 
black spots on each side of it, which are sometimes confluent. The 
wings expand from one and one-half to one and three-quarter 
inches. Length of body, when dried, three-quarter inch or less. 
‘Lhe above description applies to seven individuals, trom Union 
county, Centralia, Bloomington and Rock Island, which exhibit no 


tinetly in the right wing of the engraving, starting in either direction from the discoidal 
white spot. Guenee acknowledges the incompleteness of his specific descriptions, as 
Dr. Morris informed me, and lays the blame on his publishers, who restricted him to 
seven volumes, when he claimed ten or eleven. 


182 


material variation, except that in one specimen the median ner- 
vure is edged with dusky from the white spot to its base. 

Guenee states it to be very commonly received in France from 
Brazil, Columbia and North America. In the Mississippi Valley 
it has apparently extended this year as far north as Wisconsin, and 
on the Atlantic slope Dr, Fitch and Dr. Morris have both received 
specimens from Maryland, which appears there to be its northern 
limit, as with many other southern insects which extend in the val- 
ley of the Mississippi to a high northern latitude. What Guenee 
considers a variety destitute of the white spot, but Dr. Fitch thinks 
a distinct species, occurs in the East Indies, Java and Australia. 


LEUCANIA UNIPUNCTA, Haw. THE ARMY-WORM LARVA. FIG. I. 


The head is yellowish-brown, of a diameter as great as that of 
the first segment, speckled with confluent fuscous dots. It ismark- 
ed longitudinally by two dark lines that commence at the corners 
of the mouth, approach each other towards the center, and again 
recede behind. Over the mouth, between and on each side of 
these lines, is a short dark longitudinal line, and outside these 
again a dark dot. The mouth is dusky. The body is marked for 
its entire length, as follows: On the back a broad dusky stripe 
darker in the middle and fading towards the borders: then a nar- 
row black line; then a narrow white line; then a yellowish stripe ; 
then a narrow subobsolete white line; then a dusky stripe; thena 
narrow white line; then a yellowish stripe; then a narrow subob- 
solete white line. Beneath, all is of a pale obscure green. By 
holding the insect to the light, a very few scattering hairs become 
visible above. Legs six, slightly marked at their tip and base with 
fuscous. Prolegs ten, normal, marked on their exterior middle 
and on their tip with black, the anal ones less obviously so. 

The above description was taken from an average deving speci- 
men, from Bloomington, as it appeared to the unassisted eye. In- 
dividuals occur considerably darker and lighter. The length does 
not exceed one and a quarter inches. The pupa, (Fig. L,) offers 
nothing remarkable. 


ORDER DIPTERA. 
FAMILY MUSCADZ. DIVISION TACHINARI®, 


I am indebted for the generic determination of the following 
species to my friend and fellow-laborer, Dr. Wm. Le Baron, of 
Geneva, Ill., who has paid particular attention to this order. I 
name it specifically with the less hesitation, as Dr. Le Baron, to 
whom I had sent a specimen, says that “he doesnot know that any 
American species of the genus has been described.” In the Smith- 
sonian Catalogue of the Diptera of North America, by Baron Osten 


183 


Sacken, several other genera, recognized by authors as distinct, are 
included in the great typical genus Zachina. 

SenomeTorra miuirAris. Fig. LV. New species. Leneth, .25 
to .40 inches, or from 6 to 10 millimetres, the females not exceed- 
ing .80inch. Face silvery, with lateral black hairs only on the 
cheeks, at the top of whichis a black bristle. Front, golden olive, 
with a black central stripe, and lateral black convergent |.airs. Oc- 
ciput, dusky. Labium, brown, with yellowish hair, Maxipalps, ru- 
fous. Eyes, cinnamon brown, covered with very short dense whi- 
tish hair. Antennae, two basal joints, black, with black hairs; third 
joint, flattened, dusky, and from two and a half to three times the 
length of the second joint; seta, black. The entire hinder part of 
the head covered with dense whitish hair. Thorax glabrous, blu- 
ish gray, lighter at the sides, with four irregular black vitte, and 
black hairs and bristles. Scutel, reddish brown, whitish behind, 
glabrous, with black hairs and bristles. Pectus, black, glabrous, 
with hairs and lateral bristles. Legs, black, hairy; thighs, dark 
cinerous beneath; pulvilli, cinerous. Wings, hyaline; nervures, 
brownish ; alulee, opaque greenish white. Abdomen, first joint 
black; second and third, opalescent in the middle with black and 
gray, and at the sides with rufous and gray; last joint, rufous, 
slightly opalescent at the base with gray; all with black hairs and 
lateral bristles. Beneath, the first joint is black, the others black, 
margined with rufous, all with black hairs. In the male the space 
between the eyes at the occiput is one-seventh of the transverse di- 
ameter of the head; in the female it is one-fourth. The colors of 
the abdomen sometimes “grease” and fade in the dried specimen. 

Bred fifty-four specimens from about the same number of army- 
worms. Described from eight males and six females. Two species, 
similarly marked with rufous, but generally distinct, occur at Rock 
Island. 


| After the above was in type, I received a letter from Baron Os- 
ten Sacken, to whom | had forwarded a specimen of our insect, 
with a request that he would let me know whether it was rightly 
referred to Senometopia, and whether it was a described species. 
He says: 


This Tachina is, I believe, an Hxorista, Meigen. Senometopia, Macquart, is almost sy- 
nonymous with it, but this generic determination seems to have been abandoned by 
Macquart hiniself in his later works,as I do not find any mention of it in the seven 
volumes of his Dipteres Exotiques. Unfortunately, I possess only a fragment of Mac- 
quart’s work on the Tachinade, and that fragment does not include these genera, The 
fam-ly requires a thorough revision, as no less than three classifications, independent of 
each other, have been introduced into it, (Meigen’s, Maequart’s and Robineau Des- 
voidy’s.) * * * * J advise you to describe it, without troubling about ascertain- 
ing if itis really newornot. * * * * The same Tachina has been sent to me by 
Mr. Kirkpatrick, editor of an agricultural paper, in Cleveland, Ohio. 


I have thought it best not to disturb Dr. Le Baron’s generic de- 
termination, as Baron Osten Sacken allows /Lxzorista (Meigen) and 
Senometopia (Macquart) to be nearly synonymous, and the respective 
claims of these two European authors are not yet finally adjusted. 


184 


Possibly the reason Senometopia is not recognized in Macquart’s 
work on Zzotée Diptera is that the genns has not hitherto been dis- 
coveredinthe New World. Similarly the Glaphyrustamily (Coleop- 
tera) and the 22haphidia tamily (Neuroptera) were formerly suppo- 
sed to be restricted tothe Old World, but have now oceurred in North 
America—the European 2haphidia media being met with here, as 
I learn from Dr. Hagen. The characters of Hxorista, as given by 
Westwood, are altogether inapplicable to our insect. But in the 
Diptera, this author is not always reliable, although he las done 
his best to reconcile and systematize the conflicting arrangements 
of the three authors named by Baron Osten Sacken. 

It will be observed that I write Tachinade for the Tachina fam- 
ily, Muscadee tor the Musca family, on the analogy of Noctuada, 
Arctiudee, as written by Dr. Morris. Otherwise there is li.ble to 
be confusion with the Muscus family (mosses) in Botany, and the 
Tachinws subfamily in the Coleoptera. I am well aware that the 
termination 2d@ would be more classically correct; but when the 
whole scientitie world is cold-blooded enongh to stand calmly by, 
and allow modern Naturalists to murder King Otho’s Greek in the 
most diabolical manner—omitting aspirates worse than,any London 
cockney (Zmatidum, Altica, Oplocephala, Omalium, Yponomenta, 
Erpetogomphus, Omaloplia, ete., ete., ete.,) aud inventing barba- 
rous Greek compounds, which neither Homer nor Aristotle nor 
Aristophanes could possibly have gnessed the meaning of—it is 
not good to be particular about trifles. } 


ORDER HYMENOPTERA. 


FAMILY ICHNEUMONES GENUINI. 


IT am not sure that I am right in referring the following species 
to Mesochorus, Gravenhorst. Westwood says, “abdomen pedun- 
cled, oblong.” Viewed from above it is as drawn in the figure ; 
viewed in profile, it curves considerably, especially at base, and is 
quite narrow, except toward the tip, where it expands suddenly. 
The appendiculated abdomen of the male is, however, I believe, a 
character found in no other genus of ¢enuine ichneumons. 


Mesocuorvs virreus. Fig. 1X. New species, parasitic on Z. 
unipuncta, Haw. Length of body .08 inch., (two millimetres,) to 
.13 inch, (three millimetres ;) the smal] specimens being parasitic 
on the army-worm and the large ones captured in Rock Island 
county. Male, general color light rufous. _Eyes and ocelli, black ; 
antennee fuscous, except toward the base. Upper surface of thorax 
in the larger specimen fuscons; intermediate and posterivr tibize 
with spurs equal to one-fourth of their length; posterior knees 
slightly dusky ; tips of posterior tibiz distinctly dusky. Wings 
hyaline; nervures and stigma, dusky. Abdomen, a translucent 
yellowish white in its central one-third; the remaining two-thirds 


185 


piceous black, with a distinct narrow yellowish annulus at the base 
of the third joint. Inthe larger specimen, which seems to he im- 
mature, the basal abdominal joint, and the articulations of the ter- 
minal joints are light rufous. Appendiculum of the abdemen com- 
posed of two extremely fine setae, thickened at their base, whose 
length slightly exceeds the extreme width of the abdomen. 

The female differs from the male in the head from the mouth 
upwards being piceous. The thorax and pectus, in al! three spe- 
cimens, are also piceous black. Abdomen as in the smaller male. 
Ovipositor, which is dusky, slightly exceeds in length the width of 
the abdomen. 

Bred from the army-worm one small male and two small fe 
males. Captured in Rock Island county one large male and one 
large female, The discrepancy in size is considerable, but I can 
find no distinguishing specitic characters. 

Pezomacuus minimus. Figures VI and VII. New species, 
Length of the body .07 to 1 inch., (2 to 24 millimetres.) Male, 
general color, piceous. Eyes black; antennse, black, except to- 
ward the base, where they are light rufous. Legs, rufous; hind 
legs a little dusky. Abdomen narrowed; second and sometimes 
the third joint annulate with rufous at tip. The female differs 
from the male in the thorax being almost invariably rufous, and in 
the first three abdominal joints being generally entirely rufous, 
with a piceous annulus at the base of the third, which is sometimes’ 
absent. The abdomen is also fuller and wider. Ovipositor dusky, 
equalin length to the width of the abdomen. No vestige of wings 
in either sex, and the thorax contracted and divided as in /ormica. 

I have referred the above to Pezomachus (Gravenhorst,) although 
Westwood, in his synopsis, says of that genus, “wings rudimental, 
not fitted for flight.” Dr. Fitch has obligingly informed me by 
letter that Brullé, in his great work on the Hymenoptera, which I 
do not at present possess, says that “the species of this group are 
recognized immediately, either by the complete absence of wings, 
or by their rudimentary state when they exist.” 

I possess a very similar species, of nearly double the length, 
which is so closely allied, that I hesitated to separate it as distinet, 
until after examining many specimens, I found no intermediate size, 
and ascertained also that its cocoons, which are constructed inside 
certain flattened cocoons of spiders’ eggs, differ altogether from 
those of the smaller species, which are constructed in the open air. 
Of the larger species I bred in ’60 and ’61 from fifty to seventy 
individuals, and out of that number four winged males, true genu- 
ine ichneumons, with a normal thorax, an elevated scutel and a 
pentagonal areolet. 

Westwood notices a similar ocenrrence of winged individuals in 
the apterous Chaleidid genus Choreius, and says that “he is not 
aware of any analogous case in the order.” (Intr. IT, page 155.) 

Bred trom army-worm cocoons, arranged in a symmetrical mass, 
eleven females. Bred from cocoons, found loose in Rock Island 


—19 


186 


county, four males and seven females, one pair of which was sent 
to M. De Saussure, in 1860, together with apterous specimens of 
the larger species above referred to. 


FAMILY ICHNEUMONES ADSCITI. DIVISION AREOLARII, 


I place the following in Latreille’s genus Microgaster, although 
it does not exactly agree with his circumscription “Arevla submar- 
ginali secunda minima.” (Gen. Or. and Ins., IV, page 11.) Say 
has done the same with the allied J/. zylina and five other species. 
Probably modern writers have cut up this extensive genus, of which 
I possess over thirty species, into several new ones. 

Microgaster miuiraris. Fig, X. New species. Length of 
body, .07 inch, or two millimetres. Head, black; palpi, whitish ; 
antennae, fuscous above, light brown beneath toward the base. Tho- 
rax, black, polished, with very minute punctures. Wings hyaline; 
nervures and stigma, fuscous ; lower nervure of marginal and exte- 
rior nervure of second submarginal cellule entirely obsolete. Low- 
ernervure of third or terminal submarginal cellule hyaline. Legs, 
light rufous, posterior pair with knees and tips of tibize fuscous. 
Abdomen black, glabrous, highly polished. Ovipositor not ex- 
serted. 

Bred from army-worm cocoons nine specimens. I have not met 
with the species as yet in Rock Island county. 


FAMILY CHALCIDIDZ. SUBFAMILY CHALCIDES. 


Cuaucrs avpirrons. Fig. VIII. . New species. Length of 
body, .08 inch, or two millimetres. General color black. Head, 
(which is very incorrectly given in the engraving, probably through 
the fault of my pencil,) punctured ; antennze brown, lighter toward 
the tips. On the face a greenish-white triangle, the apex of which 
commences a little above the insertion of the antenne, extends to 
the outer corners of the mouth, and incloses on its lower margin, 
immediately above the clypeus, a round black spot. Clypeus 
greenish-white, fuscous on its basal margin, and with a black spot 
at tip. Thorax densely punctured. Wings hyaline; subcostal 
nerve fuscous for three-fourths of the distance to’the tip, as also its 
ramus. Costal nervure of the lower wing also fuscous for two- 
thirds of its length; all the other nervures hyaline. Posterior coxee 
incrassated; spurs obsolete; knees, tibiz and tarsi of anterior and 
intermediate legs, greenish-white. In the posterior legs, the tro- 
chanters, a spot on the thighs above, an annulus near the base of 
the tibie, the ‘tips of the tibia, and also the tarsi, are greenish- 
white. Extreme tips of all the tarsi fuscous. Abdomen glabrous, 
polished, equal in length to its peduncle. 

Obtained four specimens from the army-worm cocoons of Pezo- 
machus minimus, mihi. I have not met with it in Rock Island 
county, although I possess, from that locality, seven species unde- 
scribed by Say, one of which is closely allied to C. ovata, Say. 


187 


FAMILY CHALCIDIDH. SUBFAMILY PTEROMALIDES. 


It is with some hesitation that I refer the following species in 
this very extensive and diflicult family, to Glyphe, Wilkinson. It 
is one of three remarkable congeneric species in my cabinet, which 
are all characterized by the last joints of the antenne, when viewed 
from above, being elongate-acuminate, but when viewed in profile, 
being reduced to one-fourth the width of the penultimate joint, and 
attached on one side of it like a tarsal claw. In Glyphe the last 
joint is said simply to be “elongate acuminate.” In other respects 
the characters agree tolerably well. In one of my three species, 
parasitic on Microgaster xylina, Say, the antenne are notably mo- 
niliform. The other one of the three is the well known parasite of 
the Hessian-fly, which, at the commencement of Say’s entomologi- 
cal career, he arranged by mistake under the Proctotrupid genus 
Ceraphron , (C. destructor, Say;) which Westwood, subsequently, 
misled by Say’s figure, declared ‘must be evidently one of the Au- 
lophides,” the fitth subfamily of the Chalcidide, (Westwood’s Intr., 
II, page 160,) which Harris afterwards erroneously called a Luryto- 
ma, the typical genus of the second subfamily of Chalcidide, (Har- 
ris, Inj. Ins., page 432;) but which [ have no doubt, from the 
structure of the prothorax, ete., ought to be arranged somewhere 
among the Peromalides, the third subfamily of Chalcidide. 
Whether or not we choose to refer it to Glyphe is another matter. 
Perhaps a new genus will have to be founded for the reception of 
these three species.* 

GuiypHeE viripascens. I'ig, XI. Newspecies. Length of body, 
.07 inch, or not quite two millimetres. General color, dark green, 
verging on black. Head finely and densely punctured; palpi 
whitish ; eyes black ; antennze light brown, the basal joint received 
in a shallow, wide, longitudinal depression. Thorax finely and 
densely punctured ; legs yellowish-white; tips of tarsi, dusky ; wings 
hyaline; subcostal nervure brown and prolonged on the costa to 
the extreme tip of wing; abdomen black, glabrous, polished, 
flat above, convex beneath, so as in those individuals with aczmi- 
nate anus—which I take to be females, but which Wilkinson takes 
to be males—to appear almost triangular when viewed in profile. 

Bred five specimens from a mass of the army-worm cocoons’ of 
some unknown ichneumon. [have not met with itin Rock Island 
county. Four of the five have the antenne still covered with the 
transparent pupal membrane, which we often find on the antenne 
of immature Cerambycids, but the structure of the apical joint of 
the antenne is distinctly visible even in these. 

p.s.D.- We 


* Since the above was in type, I have noticed that Dr. Fitch, as well as Dr. Harris, 
refers Ceraphron destructor, Say, to Hurytoma. Perhaps my insect, which I bred from 
‘pupe of Cecidomyia destructor, found in Union county, is a distinct species, although it 
agrees with Say’s description in the remarkable character of “the segments of the base 
of the abdomen being sometimes pale yellowish.” 


188 


Posrscript.—The following April after the Essay on “Insects 
Injurious to Vegetation” was written, I received specimens of //ip- 
podamia maculata from La Moille, Ill., with a statement that they 
“were completely overrunning” Mr. Roth of that place. I subse- 
quently ascertained that they were ‘observed by him on apple trees 
infested with bark-lice, and among wild rye.” Now it has been 
already said that this insect depredates on the bark-louse of the 
willow. Hence, putting this and that together, I conclude that at 
La Moille they had been depredating on the bark-louse of the apple 
tree; and I further conjecture that it is in a great measure owing 
to the good offices of this pretty little lady-bird, that our apple trees 
in Illinois have for some years suffered comparatively little from 
bark-lice. 

Some time after the article on the army-worm was in the hands 
of the printer, my friend, Mr. Cyrus Thomas, pub:ished in the 
Prairie Farmer the following “facts,” which I will proceed to no- 
tice in the order in which they stand: 

Fact 1. In one field, last harvest, the straw was scattered over a small portion of 
the field and burnt. The same field was again planted in wheat, and this season was 
overrun with the army-worm, except the burnt district, which they left untouched. This 
occurred on a neighboring farm, four miles north of here, 

In this case the moth must have laid its eggs “on uncut wheat,” 
which on page 173 I distinctly stated to be “not impossible.” The 
field of course must have been plowed before it was again seeded to 
wheat; and yet the eges were not destroyed by being buried, which 
is certainly not what I should have anticipated in land at all on the 
wet order. In the burnt district the eggs were killed by the fire; 
and, therefore, there were no army-worms there next year. Ifthe 
wheat had been rotated by corn, as it ought to be, the caterpillars 
hatching out in April would have perished of hunger. On Mr. 
Thomas’s hypothesis of the eggs of the May and June crop of 
army-worms being laid in the spring, I do not see how this “fact” 
can be possibly explained. 

Fact 2. Another farmer, during the winter, carried out some manure on a field and 
left it in spots, not well spread. The field was planted in oats; the army-worm eat up 
the oats where the manure was placed and left the rest untouched. 

It is difficult to explain the above very curious “fact” without 
knowing fuller particulars. Was the field wet or dry land? What 
crop preceded the oats? Was it small grain? Was there any 
meadow within half a mile from which the worms could have tray- 
eled? When was the field plowed? Was the manure that of 
stock fed on tame hay or on prairie hay? There are no prairies — 
in the southern extremity of Llincis and consequently no prairie 
hay ; and, therefore, it is barely possible that army-worm eggs de- 
posited on uncut timothy may have been carted out in the dung 
and preserved until spring. It is possible also, that if wheat pre- 
ceded the oats, the eggs were laid upon that crop and destroyed 
by the plow, except where the dung kept them warm and dry 
through the winter. Lastly, it is quite probable that if the army- 


189 


worms traveled from a meadow on to the oats, they would eat only 
the ranker and tenderer portion of the crop, as they do not like 
oats very well. I know of a similar case in Northern Illinois 
where chinch-bugs took only the ‘‘back-cast” in every “land” of a 
field of wheat, the grain having probably been sown thicker in that 
particular part—as often happens in a high wind—and consequent- 
ly better suiting their fastidious palates. 


Facr 3. A few months back, when the army-worm appeared in this county, after 
disappearing, they were again seen on some farms, late in the fall, in considerable 
numbers. In one place they were in such numbers that they cut out all the grass ina 
corn field and even attacked the hard leaves of the ripening corn. 

It must have been some other species of grass-worm that was 
mistaken for the army-worm. The species before referred to as 
having been seen in great numbers in Georgia, by Mr. Glover, 
might be easily mistaken for it by incurious observers; and Mr. 
Glover speaks also of some grass-worms which occur in Maryland 
in the fall of the year, but which he had not succeeded, at the time 
of his writing, in breeding to the moth state. 

Facr 4. At another place, this spring, after the moth had made its appearance ina 
meadow, a portion of the meadow was burnt over, by means of straw and dry grass. 


Soon afterwards the worms were hatched out in abundance over every part of the 
meadow, except the burnt district—there, none were to be seen. 


I said before (p. 172) that these “moths” that are stated to have 
appeared in various places in the spring are not scientifically iden- 
tified with the army-worm moth. Neither Mr. Thomas, nor my- 
self, nor any other man upon the face of God’s earth was aware 
that Leucania unipuncta, (Haworth,) was the army-worm moth un- 
til this current summer; and no one knows better thau Mr. Thomas 
how unsafe it is to identify species of so difficult a family as the 
owlet-moths, without first capturing and examining them. I be- 
lieve the identification, in this instance, rests solely upon the au- 
thority of an aged lady, who said that she knew that we were go- 
ing to have army-worms this year, because the “millers” were so 
thick in the spring. But several other aged ladies said, they knew 
the same thing, because grasshoppers were so plenty in 186U; and, 
therefore, if all elderly females are good scientific authority, we 
are bound to believe that the grasshoppers are the mothers of the 
army-worms. 

The non-appearance of the worms in the “burnt district” is just 
what might have been anticipated. But I learnt on good authori- 
ty, in Southern Illinois, that timothy meadows there would burn 
as readily as prairie, without any help from “straw and dry grass.” 
The case of Mr. Wellington Wood’s meadow burning by accident 
certainly seems to prove this. 

Fact 5. In this (Jackson) county the worm made its appearance in the wheat almost, 
if not quite as often, as in the meadows. In some instances they first appeared in the 
wheat and traveled from it to the adjoining meadow. 

Army-worms are not generally noticed until they attain a con- 
siderable size. Ita field of wheat adjoins a meadow, who is to tell 


190 


with certamty where they originated? B—, of Pesotum, says 
that at certain hours of the day their progress is retrograde. If 
they were observed at those hours, it would be supposed that they 
were traveling from the wheat to the meadow, when in reality it 
would be just the reverse. Nevertheless, I believe, from fact No. 
1, that where small grain is followed by smaii grain, the worm 
sometimes may and does originate in small grain. But, as a gen- 
eral rule, they originate in meadows. 

Mr. Thomas concludes by quoting a newspaper article about the 
army-worms appearing in New England-—apparently at Newport, 
R. I. It must have been some other allied species. If our insect 
commonly occurred, in reality, in the eastern States, it is impossible 
that it could have escaped the scientific researches of Dr. Harris 
and Dr. Fitch, the former of whom paid special attention to the 
Lepidoptera of the United States. Yet Dr. Fitch, as he tells us 
himself, only knew it from specimens received from Maryland, 


Towaand Illinois. As to the eggs of this Yankee army-worm being. 


‘“inclosed in a substance strongly resembling cotton,” the “Scien- 
tific Gardener” who makes the assertion probably mistook a mass 
of ichneumon cocoons (see fig. VII.) for a mass of eggs. Many 
persons in Illinois have made precisely the same mistake. 

It is to be hoped that other persons in the army-worm district 
will follow Mr. Thomas’s good example, and give to the public, 
with full details, such well authenticated facts on this subject as 
they become personally acquainted with. BADE WE 


4 


[From the Illinois Prairie Farmer.] 


Postscript No. 2.—After the article on the army-worm had 
been printed in the Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural 
Society, several facts—one of the highest importance—came to my 
knowledge, which I take this opportunity to present to the notice 
of the Agricultural community. 

Lirst. I learn by a paper in the Boston Cultivator, of August 
31, from the able pen of Dr. Fitch, that the veritable army-worm 
of Illinois has actually appeared this year in Massachusetts, con- 
trary to what I had anticipated, on page 40 of my article. Dr. 
Fitch supposes it to be identical with the larva, which has long 
been known in that region by the name of the ‘“black-worm,” but 
which he had previously imagined to be a species of Leucanza, dis- 
tinct from LZ. wnipuncta, the Illinois army-worm, He also thinks 
that it is identical with the worm which is recorded to have swarmed 
in various parts of the northern States in 1743, ’70, ’90, and 1817, 
destroying the grass and the corn. 

I must confess that I consider it a great piece of presumption on 
the part of the New England States, and a gross infringement of 
our western privileges, to pretend to have true gennine army- 
worms. They will fancy after a while that they live in a warm 


CO et eS ee ee 


Riera 


191 


climate, and perhaps eventually be insolent enough to grow as 
many bushels of chinch-bugs to the acre as we do in Illinois. 

Second. While I was attending the State Fair, I made the ae- 
quaintance of Mr. Rob. Dory, an intelligent fruit grower of St. 
Clair county, in the southern part of the State. Mr. Dory told me 
that he had for several years back been trying to persuade his neigh- 
bors to burn over their tame grass meadows every winter, not with 
any idea of destroying the eggs of the army-worm moth, but sim- 
ply for the sake of facilitating the action of the scythe or mowing 
machine, the fire of course destroying the old “fuz,” which, as every 
mower knows, clogs up and dulls the edge of the scythe. This year 
he burnt his own meadow over, and persuaded one or two farmers 
in his neighborhood to do the same; and just as I should have 
expected, THE BURNT MEADOWS HAD NO ARMY-WORMS ON THEM, WHILE 
UNBURNT MEADOWS ALL AROUND THEM WERE BADLY INFESTED. Mr. 
Dory could not recollect the precise month when the burning took 
place, but he thinks it was February. At all events, he says it 
Was BEFORE THE FROST WENT OUT OF THE GROUND, and he very judi- 
ciously recommends that the operation should not be delayed till a 
later period, for fear of injuring the crop. 

This fact appears to me to finally settle the question between 
Mr. Cyrus Thomas and myself, as to the army-worm moth, that 
lays the eggs for the May and June crop of army-worms, not com- 
ing out of the ground until the opening of the spring. If this were 
actually the case, as Mr. Thomas supposes, the burning over mead- 
OWS WHILE THE FROST WAS IN THE GROUND, could in no possible way 
have prevented a moth, which did not appear till March or April, 
from depositing its eggs on them; whereas, if, as | firmly believe, 
the army-worm eggs are laid some time in June, July or August, 
on the stems of the tame grass close to the ground, and lie dormant 
there till next spring, burning the meadows in the dead of the year, 
would be certain to destroy them. 

Third. J obtained from Mr. Emery, at the State Fair, a little 
gun-cap box brim full of the cocoons of ichneumons parasitic on 
the army-worm, and of flies which had hatched out from them in 
the box, and died there. The contents were collected, as I under- 
stood, in Champaign county. Ona careful examination after I 

ot home, I found there were in the box 118 specimens of J/icro- 
gaster militaris, (see fig. X) 26 of Glyphe viredascens, (fig. X1,) 
and one of a beautiful new species of /ockeria, a genus closely al- 
lied to Chalcis, but differing in not having the abdomen mounted 
on a long footstalk, and in some other particulars. Of this genus 
I had not previously met with any representative in this country. 
Small as it was, I gleaned from this little box several most inter- 
esting scientific facts. 1st. Glyphe viridascens is parasitic on Jf?- 
crogaster militaris, whereas before, although I knew it to be a 
secondary parasite of the army-worm, I did not know what was 
the primary parasite upon which it depredated. 2d. We learn 
that Microgaster militaris depredated extensively on the army- 


Saye | eae 


192 


worm not only in Schuyler county, from which locality my former 
specimens were obtained, but alsoin Champaign. 38d. We become 
acquainted with a new secondary parasite of the army-worm, which 
{ have named LHockeria perpulcra. 4th. Not merely a new spe- 
cies, but a new genus of Chilcidides, Hockeria, is added to the 
North American Fauna. For the benefit of those interested in 
such matters, a full description of this unique insect will be found 
in the foot note.* And dastly, we are enabled now to give the sta- 
tistics of one of the secondary parasites of the army-worm. It was 
shown hefore, with regard to one of its primary parasites, that of 
about 56 army-worms indiscriminately captured, 54, or 96 per cent., 
perished by the Zachina fly. We now know that of 145 inchneu- 
mon-flies, promiscuously taken, that had depredated on the army- 
worm, 27, or only 18 per cent., perished by Chalczs flies. 

fourth. Inthe text (p. 176) it was shown that Tachina-flies had 
largely depredated on the army-worm in Williamson, Union and 
McLean counties. We may now add Jackson and Cook counties 
to the list. I obtained several specimens of the army-worm cap- 
tured in Cook county, from Mr. C. T. Chase, at the State Fair, and 
T now find that one of them has several Tachina eggs, still firmly 
fastened to the three anterior segments. As to Jackson, Mr. 
Thomas says in a recent article that some of his parasitic pupz ob- 
tained in that county, ‘‘were inclosed in a cocoon shaped ease, di- 
vided into rings, and were about one-fourth of an inch long, and 


* Hockeria PeERPULCRA—New species. Length, .09 inch, general color black. Head 
covered with dense largish punctures, which in certain lights show a golden silvery 
radiance ; deeply emarginate behind, at an angle of 90 deg. so that its longitudinal is 
scarcely one-fifth of its transverse diameter. Antenna, which are inserted immediately 
above the mouth, have their first joint equal to one-half the sum of their other joints, 
and received in a narrow, deep longitudinal depression. Eyes black. Thorax punc- 
tured like the head above and beneath, with the mesothoracic scutel large, much round- 
ed above, and obtusely pointed behind. Prothorax transverse before and behind, with 
the anterior angles a little rounded, and the posterior ones acute, slightly prolonged 
backwards. Wings hyaline, subcostal nervure brownish, extending more than three- 
fourths of the way to the tip; ramus very short and widely colored ; legs with the tips 
of the tibize and the tarsi obscure whitish ; the posterior coxe over one-half the length 
of the posterior femora, which last are incrassated so that the transverse diameter equals 
one-third the longitudinal ; both coxze and femora of the posterior legs have the appear- 
ance on them of a short dense whitish hair. Posterior tibie truncate at tip, with no 
vestige of spurs. Abdomen ovate, glabrous, first joint equal to three-fifths of its entire 
length, and highly polished ; intermediate joints very narrow, with the appearance of 
short whitish hairs ; the last joint, acutely pointed behind, and at its base, when viewed 
in profile, only one-halfthe diameter of penultimate joint, but set on ina line with it above. 

Obtained a single specimen from an army-worm cocoon, probably of Micros aster mil- 
tiaris, mihi. It may be here stated that many specimens of Glyphe viridascens, mihi, 
taken in company with it, do not exceed .05 in length, and range from that up to .08 
inch. I am now convinced that the peculiar formation of the last joint of the antenna, 
noticed in this species and in the two others referred to on page 187, is not a generic 
character, as I formerly supposed, but a peculiarity of the immature individual. All 
my specimens cf these three species, as we stated in the text, were bred; and, as hag 
hitherto been my custom, they were all killed shortly after they came out of the pupa. 
fn the twenty-six additional specimens of Glyphe viridascens which I now possess, all 
of which had perished of old age in their little pasteboard gaol, I can detect this pecu- 


liar antennal character only in a single individual, and even in that one it is but par- 
tially developed. 


193 


half as broad, very dark walnut color.” These could not have 
been ichneumon cocoons, as my friend supposes, because these last 
being spun of silk, are never “divided into rings;” whereas, the 
cocoon of the Tachina-fly is nothing but the shrunken skin of the 
larva, and is therefore necessarily so divided. The description 
suits exactly the cocoon of our red-tailed Tachina-fly.* 

There is one other matter connected with this subject, upon 
which it is proposed to subjoin a few remarks. I write now, not’ 
as a Naturalist, but asa farmer. And perhaps I am as well quali- 
fied as most men to give an opinion on the subject of burning grass, 
seeing that during the twelve years I carried on a farm in Henry 
county, I had annually two miles of worm fence to burn round, in 
order to protect it from the prairie fires. 

It is well known that if prairie is burnt in the summer—and of 
course it will not burn then unless the old grass of the preceding 
season has been allowed to remain unburnt—it has a tendency to 
kill out, and run to weeds. On the same principle, if you burn a 
tame grass meadow after the frost is out of the ground, and conse- 
quently after the grass has more or less commenced to start, you 
injure it permanently. The reason is simple. In both cases the 
living shoots of grass are destroyed by the fire down to the very 
root, and a certain per centage of the grass plants being unable to 
survive such harsh usage, are permanently killed. It may be laid 
down, therefore, as a general rule, that meadows ought to be burnt 
while the frost is still in the ground. I am inclined to attribute a 
belief, which I find prevails in Madison county, that burning mead- 
ows injures them to the extent of one-third of the crop, to the neg- 
lect of this salutary precaution, which, as was before stated, practi- 
cal men like Mr. Dory, of St. Clair county, have found it expedi- 
ent to adopt. 

Of course, if you have worm fences round your meadow, there is 
some trouble in keeping the fire out, especially in a timbered coun- 
try like South Illinois. But on the open prairie, the snow gener- 
ally forms drifts in the winter, along every worm fence, and these 
drifts remain long after the field is bare. By taking advantage, 
therefore, of the first dry time, after your meadow is bare, you 


* My friend Dr. Kirtland, of Cleveland, Ohio, has described this same Tachina-fly in 
the Ohio Agricultural Reports, under the name of Hzoristaleucanie. His specific name, 
having been published before mine, will consequently take precedence of mine ; and the 
insect will be correctly designated for the future as Hxorista leucanie, Kirtland. The 
genus Senometopia must be finally abandoned, as Baron Osten Sacken writes me word 
that Macquart himself, the author of that genus, says in his work on the Tachinaria, 
under the head of Hzorista, ‘this genus contains the species which I formerly placed in 
the genera Senometopia and Lydella. As their only difference was in the form of the 
abdomen, I reunite them again under the name of Hxorista, Meigen, which has the pri- 
ority,” ete. 

Hen Osten Sacken adds that Dr. Kirtland “describes besides a smaller Tachina— 
reared from the same eaterpillars—as Hxorista Osten Sackenii ;” but says that “the does 
not think there is any difference between this species and the other besides the size.” 
The Doctor is rather unfortunate in his complimentary specific names. His new but- 
terfly, Libythea Bachmani, turns out, as I learn from Mr, Edwards, to be nothing but 
the old Libythea motya of Boisduval and Leconte. 


) ne tad 


may barn $ it 4ttig set Sigjls danger to your fonds? and where some 
few fence corners: ave thawed bare, it is but a few: hours work to 
shovel enéugh snow upon them to protect them, 78, Rabin 
As.to the “question whether it would answer eqially well to ‘bnin? 
over meadows late in the fall, instéad of early in the spring, I be- 
lieve that it can make no difference to the crop when the operation’ 
is performed, provided the frost is in the ground, and vegetation 
consequently ormant. So far as the army-worm is pei 
certainly can make no difference whatever. — aie on 
' Rock Istanp, September 19, 1861. “e . 


Natural! History Survey 


LS brarv 


- 


+ 
be ay 
oo 


hi SERIES 1. 


TRANSACTIONS 


OF ‘THE 
¥ 


ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
———— 


Illinois State 


)RATORY OF NATURAL HISTORY, 


URBANA, ILLINOIS. 


Eoirep By C. D. WILBER, Secretary, 


And Instructor in Natural History and Geology, in the State Normal University, at Bloomington. 


SECOND EDITION. 


SPRINGFIELD: 


BAILHACHE & BAKER, PRINTERS. 


1862. 


- 


Ww 


UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
570.6IL C001 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS NATURAL HIS 


. tye 


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